Brink of Humanitarian Disaster

Sanaa, Yemen - Even before demonstrators began demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh five months ago, Yemen's future looked bleak.

A third of its people couldn't be certain when they'd next eat.
The oilfields that provide 70 percent of government revenues and more than 30 percent of the country's economic activity were expected to go dry in 10 years. Experts even were betting that Sanaa would be the first world capital to run out of water.

But now, with Saleh lying wounded in a hospital in Saudi Arabia after an assassination attempt, the political system paralyzed by armed conflict and disagreements about what should happen to his government, and economic activity grindi
ng to a halt, the future may be now.

"While it may not be plainly visible yet, I would say that Yemen is on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe," said Geert Cappelaere, the Yemen representative for UNICEF, the United Nations children's aid agency.

Throughout the country, Yemen's infrastructure has buckled under the months of conflict. Oil supply lines have been disrupted since March, following an attack on Yemen's main oil pipeline suspected to be the work of anti-government tribesmen. Across the country, prices of basics like food, water and gasoline have increased exponentially, placing further strain on the already struggling poor. Electricity has gone from unreliable to nearly nonexistent. Fearing further outbreaks of violence, many city dwellers have fled to the countryside, stretching the already meager supplies and services in those areas.

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