Starving 7-Year-Old Yemeni Girl, Whose Photo Sparked Outrage, Dies

Amal's mother Mariam Ali, holding back her tears, said "her heart was broken" over her daughter's death

Amal Hussein, a malnourished 7-year-old girl from war-torn Yemen, whose photograph sparked shock and anger across the globe, died on Thursday. The photograph shows an emaciated Amal, whose skin and bones can be seen, staring into space away from the camera. Support poured in for her as people offered money to her family and wrote asking if she was getting better, according to The New York Times, which first brought attention to the girl's story.

However, calls for support came in a little too late, as her family said she died at a refugee camp just four miles away from her hospital.

According to the New York Times report, Amal was discharged from the hospital, despite being sick, as doctors needed to make room for new patients, the doctor who was looking after Amal said. Dr Mahdi had urged Amal's mother to take her to a better hospital.

"Look. No meat. Only bones," Dr Mekkia Mahdi told a New York Times team which went to visit Amal in the hospital.

Amal had her photo clicked by Tyler Hicks, a New York Times photographer, at the mobile UNICEF clinic in Yemen's Aslam town on October 18, CNN reported, according to news agency ANI.

Amal's mother Mariam Ali, holding back her tears, told the New York Times on telephone that "her heart was broken" and that she was worried for her other children, after Amal's photograph shined a spotlight on Yemen.

"Yemen today stands on a precipice," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. The war in the middle-east country has left around 10,000 people dead.

Around 14 million people in Yemen, which is half of the country's population, could face the risk of famine in the coming months, without any intervention, said Guterres, according to news agency AFP.

Amal's family, according to the New York Times report, said she belonged to Saada, a Yemeni province bordering Saudi Arabia, which has suffered around 18,000 airstrikes from the country since 2015.

"I had no money to take her to the hospital. So I took her home," said the mother of Amal, whose name means 'hope' in Arabic.

(With Inputs From Agencies)