What it’s like to live in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis

Less than a mile from heavy fighting that often lasted all night, Doctor Khaled Ahyaf was doing his best to keep his patients alive at a children's malnutrition clinic in Eastern Yemen. But the small town of Tuhayta was cut off, making it impossible to get the supplies or help that were so badly needed.

“If you survived the mines, you’d get killed by a sniper,” he told VICE News.

“We’re living on the last 5 percent,” added Nabat Sulaiman, a nurse in the clinic. “We only do the limited work we can do. We beg them, try to make peace.”

They were surrounded by tiny, emaciated and wailing babies, just some of the 20 million people now facing famine due to the war in Yemen.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been fighting for four years in an attempt to defeat the Houthi rebels, who they see as Iranian proxies. But there is no victory in sight, various efforts at a peace deal have failed, and the war, being waged with U.S. supplied weapons and equipment, grinds on. Airstrikes, landmines, ragtag militias who use child soldiers, and widespread blockades of food and aid have made this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

VICE News travelled to Yemen in October 2018 to report on the civilians who are being hit the hardest, the brave volunteers risking their lives to save them, and the motley crew of U.S.-backed fighters who want a fight to the finish, regardless of the costs.

This segment originally aired November 23, 2018 on VICE on HBO.