Four-month-old baby so malnourished her cries were silent and she couldn’t move – World News

“I was so desperate, people told me she wouldn’t make it – if she’d cry, you wouldn’t even hear her voice.”

These are the tragic words of the mother of a four-month-old baby left so malnourished her cries were silent and she couldn’t even move amid the devastating ‘forgotten’ conflict in Yemen.

Baby Noor’s family were forced to leave their home when an air raid destroyed their home in the civil war-torn Middle Eastern country.

With the family displaced, Noor’s father lost his job and therefore the income that supported his wife and five children, leaving the the kids waking up at night crying with hunger.

At just four months old, Noor became so ill and her body was so weak her mum feared she would not survive.

She suffered from malnutrition, a fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and stopped breastfeeding.

Mum Safiya, 31, said: “When I came to the hospital I was desperate. I was thinking that I’d bury her by the time I’d leave the hospital.”

In 2014 a long-running political crisis escalated into violence, with devastating consequences for the people who live in Yemen.

It has been described as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time” and is still raging seven years later.

Speaking of the stark reality of life in the midst of conflict, Safiya said: “Before the war, the situation was fine. We did not feel afraid when we left our houses. Nor fear abduction.

“Now the situation is different. If night comes while we are outside we feel afraid because of war. We hear on a daily basis that somebody was killed or somebody was abducted.

“We left our house because an air raid that targeted the airport damaged our house. The roof of our house was destroyed as well as another room.

“The door also was damaged. Our neighbours’ houses were also destroyed. Some people died. Some others were taken to the hospitals.”

Safiya says they used to have enough food to share with neighbours but with the conflict some days they became unable to feed their own children.

The children would often go to bed without dinner or even water.

When Noor’s mum first took her to hospital in December 2020, she was diagnosed with Severe Acute Malnutrition.

“At the very beginning she was skin and bones,” Safiya said.

By June 2021, with the support of Save The Children teams on the ground, 11-month-old Noor’s condition was much more hopeful and Safiya said she could see a real difference in her little daughter.

She plays, is beginning to speak and enjoys it when her mother sings to her.

“When I got to the hospital my daughter’s situation improved,” Safiya said. “Now, she is pretty much recovered.

“They did medical check-ups and provided her with medicine for fever. They provided her with nutritious food.”

Safiya has been taking Noor to hospital for regular check-ups and measurements.

Noor is no longer suffering with severe acute malnutrition and has been able to gain a bit of weight.

“Nowadays she is getting better, thank God,” Safiya said. “Now she plays, mumbles and she recovered.”

Noor’s mum says she can now grab things herself whereas “in the past she couldn’t even move.”

“The most joyful thing is when I start to sing for her.”

Noor’s recovery has improved life for the whole family, who were full of worry while she was sick.

They now receive food on a weekly basis through the Outpatient Therapeutic Programme funded by Save The Children.

“I hope in the future me, my husband and my children will live in our own house, remain healthy and strong and have enough to eat and drink,” Safiya said.

Save the Children supports all therapeutic feeding centre services for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications within Khalifa hospital, where Noor is treated.

The charity is also building the capacity of health workers in Yemen and supports the rehabilitation of different facilities of the hospital.

It provides incentives for health workers, including medicine, medical supplies and covers the transportation costs and food expenses for the families who are referred from the health facilities to Khalifa hospital.

With an estimated 5.7 million children under five on the brink of starvation across the globe, Save the Children has warned that the world is facing the biggest global hunger crisis of the 21st century.

Data given by the the charity showed in Yemen, almost 700,000 children under five face critical food shortages.

“As the UK government cuts vital food aid to more than 213,000 people in Yemen and warnings emerge that the country is facing famine, many children may not be able to access the vital supported needed,” the charity said.

Save the Children has launched the largest ever appeal to help prevent hundreds of thousands of children from dying of hunger. Find out more and donate here.