- Title: Emaciated Yemeni woman now smiles but recovery patchy
- Date: 6th December 2016
- Summary: SANAA, YEMEN (DECEMBER 6, 2016) (REUTERS) CARS DRIVING ALONG A STREET IN SANAA HOTEL IN SANAA WHERE 18-YEAR-OLD SAIDA AHMAD BAGHILI IS STAYING VARIOUS OF SAIDA SITTING ON HER BED IN THE HOTEL ROOM SAIDA'S HANDS WEARING GLOVES SAIDA'S FACE SAIDA AND HER FATHER SOUNDBITE (Arabic) SAIDA'S FATHER, AHMED ALI BAGHILI, SAYING: "We came to Sanaa to do a colonoscopy for her, and she still needs nourishment, she suffers from malnutrition and she needs to continue treatment and she will get better, but without it, she won't." VARIOUS OF SAIDA SITTING ON HER BED SOUNDBITE (Arabic) SAIDA'S FATHER, AHMED ALI BAGHILI, SAYING: "The first time we weighed her, she weighed 9 kilos and 50 grams. Today she weighs 16 kilos." VARIOUS OF SAIDA SITTING ON HER BED CARS DRIVING ALONG A STREET IN SANAA HODEIDAH, YEMEN (RECENT - NOVEMBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SAIDA IN HER HOSPITAL BED IN HODEIDAH RECEIVING TREATMENT
- Embargoed: 21st December 2016 13:46
- Keywords: Sanaa Hodeidah Yemen Saida malnutrition emaciated
- Location: SANAA AND HODEIDAH, YEMEN
- City: SANAA AND HODEIDAH, YEMEN
- Country: Yemen
- Reuters ID: LVA0015BQXBUV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Images of 18-year-old Saida Ahmad Baghili's emaciated body shocked the world and turned a spotlight on the worsening humanitarian crisis across war-torn Yemen.
Now, after weeks of specialist hospital care in the capital Sanaa, though she can still barely speak and sometimes finds eating more difficult than ever, she can at least smile.
Nearly two years of war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement has deepened the plight of Baghili's family and millions of other Yemenis.
In her parched village on the Red Sea coast, impoverished residents have long struggled to put food on the table.
Doctors believe her condition - which began several years before the war began - has damaged her throat and, when her family first brought her to a regional hospital in October, she could barely keep her eyes open or stand.
A doctor at Sanaa's al-Thawra hospital said Saida had been admitted to find the cause of her inability to eat and it was clear she was suffering from severe malnutrition.
Her father Ahmed Baghili, who is staying nearby to be with his daughter, says her weight has reached 16 kg. (35 pounds), more than five kilos heavier than when she was first admitted to hospital.
"She suffers from malnutrition and she needs to continue treatment and she will get better, but without it, she won't," he said.
Even before the onset of the conflict in March 2015, Yemen was suffering a humanitarian crisis including widespread hunger which was brought on by decades of poverty and internal strife.
About half of Yemen's 28 million people are "food insecure", according to the United Nations, and 7 million of them do not know where they will get their next meal. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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