LISTEN: Aid worker from Irvine tells us streets have been reduced to rubble, as she details Yemen's crisis

An aid worker from Irvine says it’s essential the crisis in Yemen isn’t forgotten about.

Laura Phillips from Irvine has followed in her soldier father’s footsteps to travel to some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones.

Dad Paul served with the armed forces in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan - and World Food Programme analyst Laura is currently based in war-torn Yemen, having worked with the agency in Bangladesh and Syria.

The 28-year-old is helping the WFP feed 12 million displaced and starving Yemenis a month, in projects supported by the Department for International Development, and has spoken to West FM News about what life there is like:

Last week marked the fourth anniversary of the conflict, which has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Yemen was already one of the world’s poorest nations and fighting has left 80 per cent of the country’s population of 30 million in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

An estimated 2 million children are acutely malnourished. Boys are being recruited into armed groups while child marriage rates increased threefold for girls under 18 in the last year, according to the United Nations.

Operational Information Management & Reports Officer Laura was posted to Yemen in January. Her role provides the big picture overview of WFP’s Yemen operation – the agency’s largest anywhere in the world – pulling together all the data and information, ensuring it is consistent and accurate.

Last week Laura – whose parents live in Maybole, Ayrshire - visited the vital port city of Hodeidah, which has been the scene of a fragile ceasefire since December 2018.

Laura’s work has been praised by International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who said: “Courageous aid workers such as Laura are at the heart of the UK's efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. She has my utmost respect and gratitude.

“This year, the UK Government committed an additional £200 million to tackle the crisis, bringing the total UK aid to Yemen to over £770 million since the conflict began."