Morning Briefing

IRIN reports that "[a]id workers hope 'shocking' new malnutrition figures from a survey conducted in western Yemen will help highlight the serious humanitarian situation in the country and prompt donors to act immediately." The survey, conducted by Yemen's Ministry of Public Health and Population and supported by UNICEF, "found a global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 31.7 percent -- meaning nearly one third of children surveyed suffered from either moderate or severe acute malnutrition -- of which nearly 10 percent were severe cases. These figures are more than double the internationally recognized emergency threshold of 15 percent," IRIN writes (12/27).