Nearly 8 out of 10 Yemenis will live below the poverty line within three years if fighting continues in this country at war since 2014, according to the UN.

Yemen, ravaged by a war that has lasted since 2014, will become the poorest country in the world if the conflict continues until 2022, according to a UN report. "If the fighting continues, in 2022 Yemen will be the poorest country in the world, with 79% of the population below the poverty line and 65% living in extreme poverty," this report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlights.

According to the report published on Wednesday, the war has raised the poverty rate from 47% in 2014 to 75% in 2019, in a country with 29 million inhabitants. Yemen, long considered the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, plunged into war in late 2014. An offensive launched a few months later by a Saudi-led military coalition aggravated the situation, killing tens of thousands, mostly civilians, and pushing Yemen to the brink of starvation.

The fighting has also displaced millions of people. "The war not only caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world but also plunged the country into a profound development crisis," said UNDP Yemen representative Auke Lootsma on the occasion of the publication of this report.