Yemenis in an isolated district eat leaves to survive

也门人在一个与世隔绝的地方靠吃树叶为生

▌ 部分素材来源于福克斯新闻，世界播团队翻译

In this Aug. 25, 2018 image made from video, a severely malnourished girl waits for her turn to be treated at the Aslam Health Center in Hajjah, Yemen. Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished; another 400,000 children are fighting for their lives only a step away from starvation. Yemen’s civil war has wrecked the impoverished country’s already fragile ability to feed its population. (AP Photo/Hammadi Issa)

在这张2018年8月25日视频拍摄的图像中，一名严重营养不良的女孩正在也门哈杰省的Aslam健康中心等待治疗。在也门，大约290万妇女和儿童严重营养不良；另外还有40万儿童正在为自己的生命而战斗，他们距离饿死只有一步之遥。也门内战摧毁了这个贫穷国家本已脆弱的养活人口的能力。(照片由美联社Hammadi Issa记者提供)

Many families with starving children in an isolated pocket of northern Yemen have no food except the boiled leaves of local wild vine, a sign of how some are falling through the cracks of international relief efforts trying to prevent widespread death from famine around the country.

在也门北部一个偏僻的地区，许多家庭的孩子正在忍受饥饿，他们除了当地野生藤本植物的煮叶外，没有其他食物可供食用。国际救援努力的目的是为了试图防止因全国各地的饥荒而造成的广泛死亡，但发生在也门的这一迹象表明，一些人正从国际救援努力的裂痕中跌落。

The main health center in Aslam district was crowded with emaciated children during a recent visit by the Associated Press. Excruciatingly thin toddlers, eyes bulging, sat in a plastic washtub used in a make-shift scale as staff weighed each one. Their papery skin was stretched tight over pencil-like limbs and knobby knees.

在美联社最近的一次访问中，Aslam地区的主要卫生中心里挤满了瘦弱的儿童。那些瘦骨嶙峋，眼睛胀得鼓鼓的幼童，坐在一个塑料洗脸盆里，工作人员用换档秤给每个人称重。他们纸一样的皮肤紧贴在铅笔状的四肢和多节的膝盖上。

At least 20 children are known to have died of starvation already this year in the province that includes the district. The real number is likely far higher, since few families report their children's deaths when they die at home, officials say.

据了解，今年在包括这个地区在内的该省市至少有20名儿童死于饥饿。官员表示，实际数字可能要高得多，因为很少有家庭报告他们在家中死亡的孩子。

"We are in the 21st century, but this is what the war did to us," said the health center's chief, Mekkiya Mahdi.

“我们身处21世纪，但是我们仍然处在战乱之中，这些都是战争对我们造成的影响，” 卫生中心主任梅克基亚·马赫迪说。

Yemen is more than three years into a civil war that has wrecked the country's already fragile ability to feed itself. The war pits Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who hold the north, against a Saudi-led coalition, armed and backed by the United States. The coalition has sought to bomb the rebels into submission with an air campaign in support of Yemeni government forces.

也门的内战已经持续了三年多，这场战争摧毁了该国本已脆弱的养活自己的能力。在这场战争中，被称为胡塞的什叶派反政府武装与由沙特领导并由美国武装和支持的联盟军对抗，其中胡塞武装一直控制着北部地区。为了支持也门政府军，联军试图通过空袭来轰炸叛军。

Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished; another 400,000 children are fighting for their lives only a step away from starvation.

在也门，大约290万妇女和儿童严重营养不良；另外还有40万儿童正在为自己的生命而战斗，他们距离饿死只有一步之遥。

At least 8.4 million of Yemen's 29 million people would starve if they didn't receive international aid, a number that grew by a quarter the past year, according to U.N. figures. It is likely to jump by another 3.5 million because the currency's tumbling value leaves more people unable to afford food, the U.N. said.

联合国的数据显示，如果也门的2900万人口得不到国际援助，那么至少会有840万人面临挨饿，这一数字在过去一年里增长了四分之一。联合国还表示，由于货币贬值而导致更多的人买不起食物，这一数字可能还会增加350万。

Humanitarian officials warn that in the face of unending war, hunger's spread is outstripping efforts to keep people alive.

人道主义官员警告说，面对无休止的战争，饥饿的蔓延超过了维持人类生存的努力。

When AP approached U.N. agencies with questions about the situation in Aslam, they expressed alarm and surprise. In response to the AP's questions, international and local aid groups launched an investigation into why food wasn't getting to the some families, a top relief official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of issues involved in operating in the war-ravaged country.

当美联社向联合国机构提出有关Aslam局势的问题时，他们表示震惊和惊讶。在回答美联社的问题时，一位高级救援官员说，国际和地方援助组织开始调查为什么一些家庭得不到食物。这位官员不愿透露姓名，因为在这个饱受战争蹂躏的国家，涉及此类活动的相关问题非常敏感。

As an immediate response, the official said, relief agencies are sending over 10,000 food baskets to the district, and UNICEF Resident Representative Dr. Meritxell Relano said the organization is increasing its mobile teams in the district from three to four and providing transportation to health facilities.

作为立即的回应，这位官员表示，救援机构正在向该地区运送1万多个食品篮，联合国儿童基金会驻地代表梅里特尔·拉拉诺博士说，该组织正在将该地区的流动小组从3个增加到4个，并向卫生设施提供交通服务。

In first six months of this year, Hajjah province, where Aslam is located, recorded 17,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, higher than in any full year, said Walid al-Shamshan, head of the Health Ministry's nutrition section in the province.

卫生部营养部门负责人瓦利德·沙姆山表示，今年前6个月，Aslam所在的哈杰省记录了1.7万例严重急性营养不良病例，比往年任何一整年的记录都高。

"It's a steady deterioration and it's scary," al-Shamshan said. Even after treatment, children often deteriorate once again when they go home to villages with no food and contaminated water.

“这是一种持续恶化的情况，非常可怕，”阿尔沙姆山说。即使经过治疗，但当孩子们返回没有食物和污染水的村庄时，他们的身体往往会再次恶化。

Aslam is one of Yemen's poorest districts, located in the Houthi heartland. Its population of 75,000 to 106,000 includes both local residents and growing numbers of people displaced by fighting elsewhere.

Aslam是也门最贫穷的地区之一，位于胡塞中心地带。其7.5万至10.6万的人口中既有当地居民，也有越来越多因战争而从其他地方远道而来的流离失所的人。

It saw one of Hajjah province's highest jumps in the number of reported children suffering from severe acute malnutrition: From 384 cases in January, an additional 1,319 came in over the next six months. That comes to around 15 percent of the district's children.

报告显示，哈杰省报告的患有严重急性营养不良的儿童人数增加最多：从1月份的384例，到接下来的6个月里又增加了1 319例。该地区约有15%的儿童都是如此。

There appeared to be multiple reasons why aid was not reaching some of the starving, beyond the rapid increase in those in need.

除了需要援助的人数迅速增加之外，似乎有多种原因说明援助没有送达到一些饥饿者的手中。

The lion's share of assistance goes to displaced people, with 20 percent going to the local community, said Azma Ali, a worker with the World Food Program. Agencies' criteria give priority for help to the displaced and households without a breadwinner, though local residents also struggle to find food.

世界粮食计划署的工作人员阿兹玛·阿里说，援助的大部分用于流离失所者，其中20%流向当地社区。尽管当地居民也很难找到食物，但各机构的标准是优先为流离失所者和没有养家糊口的家庭提供帮助。

Under heavy pressure from Houthi authorities, international agencies like WFP and UNICEF and their Yemeni partners are required to use lists of needy provided by local officials.

在胡塞当局的巨大压力下，世界粮食计划署和联合国儿童基金会等国际机构及其也门伙伴被要求必须使用当地官员提供的贫困人口名单。

Critics accuse those officials of favoritism. That especially works against the local population in Aslam, where many belong to the "Muhammasheen," Arabic for the "Marginalized," a community of darker-skinned Yemenis shunned by the rest of society and left to work as garbage collectors, menial laborers or beggars. The Marginalized have no weight with officials to ensure aid goes their way.

批评人士指责这些官员偏袒。这对Aslam的当地居民尤其不利，在那里，许多人都属于“边缘人群”（阿拉伯语中是“边缘化的群体”的意思），这是一个皮肤黝黑的也门人组成的社区，社会上其他人都排斥他们，并让他们去做垃圾收集者、卑微的劳工或乞丐那些其他人都不愿做得工作。被边缘化的人在官员那里没有任何分量，无法确保援助按他们想要的方式进行。

One humanitarian coordinator in Hajjah said local Houthi authorities distribute aid unfairly.

哈贾的一名人道主义协调员说，当地胡塞当局不公平地分发援助物资。

"The powerful hinder the work of the humanitarian agencies and deprive of aid those people who are in most need," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of problems with the authorities.

他说：“强大的力量阻碍了人道主义机构的工作，剥夺了那些最需要帮助的人的援助。”他要求匿名，以免与当局发生问题。

Some residents said local officials demand bribes to get on food lists — the equivalent of around 15 U.S. cents, but still too much for many.

一些居民说，地方官员要求贿赂才能列入食品清单-贿赂的钱大约相当于15美分，但对许多人来说还是太多了。

Food deliveries come irregularly or are too small or are missing items, residents and aid workers said.

当地居民和救援人员说，运送食品的时间不定期，或者运送的食物太少，或者是丢失了物品。

People in Aslam have become increasingly reliant on leaves from the local Arabian Wax Leaf vine, known in Yemeni Arabic as "halas."

Aslam的人们越来越依赖当地阿拉伯蜡叶藤蔓的叶子，在也门阿拉伯语中被称为“Halas”。

In the village of al-Mashrada, a 7-month-old girl, Zahra, cried and reached with her bony arms for her mother to feed her. Undernourished herself, her mother is often unable to breastfeed her. She can't afford formula.

在al-Mashrada村，一个7个月大的女孩扎赫拉哭着用她骨瘦如柴的胳膊去找妈妈来喂她。由于营养不良，她的母亲常常无法用母乳喂养她。而且这位母亲也买不起配方奶粉。

Zahra was recently treated at the health center but is dwindling away again. Her parents can't afford to hire a car or motorbike to take her back to the clinic. If they don't, Zahra will die, said Mahdi.

扎赫拉最近在医疗中心接受了治疗，但现在又在逐渐减少去治疗的次数。因为她的父母付不起租汽车或摩托车送她回诊所的费用。马赫迪说，如果他们不把她送去医疗中心，扎赫拉就会死。

Zahra's mother said only "the big heads" — the better-off and well-connected — end up with international aid.

扎赫拉的母亲说，只有“大脑袋”-有钱有势的人-最终才会得到国际援助。

"We only have God. We are poor and we have nothing."

“我们只有上帝。我们贫穷，一无所有。”

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