Rights groups call on world powers to end Yemen’s tragedy

The war in Yemen has pushed the country to the brink of famine, with both commercial food imports and aid deliveries held up by the fighting and millions of hungry women and children facing possible starvation, the United Nations said.

Ertharin Cousin, head of the U.N.’s World Food Program, said that while some food aid is flowing in, fighting around major ports is stalling deliveries, while reaching the country’s interior is proving difficult and donor funding is still falling short.

Cousin was in Cairo following a three-day trip to Yemen. The World Food Program says all sides in the conflict must approve food deliveries.

U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien, who also just returned from Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council “the scale of human suffering is almost incomprehensible.”

The humanitarian situation has steadily deteriorated since the fighting picked up in March, when Saudi Arabia launched a U.S.-backed coalition air campaign against the Arab country.