Toxic mix of violence and virus sweeps poorest countries, warns war reporter
The BBC's Lyse Doucet says Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and others face a nightmare scenario from the global pandemic
This summer will usher in some of the worst catastrophes the world has ever seen if the pandemic is allowed to spread rapidly across countries already convulsed by growing violence, deepening poverty and the spectre of famine, the BBC war reporter Lyse Doucet has warned.
Speaking exclusively to the Observer, she says she fears a terrifying mix of violence and the virus" will soon overwhelm countries such as Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia, where Covid-19 has yet to reach its peak. Already, in southern Yemen, gravediggers can't keep up with the dead and dying, she says. Conflict will also be magnified and multiplied by impoverishment, starvation and despair ... Expect a hot summer."
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