WFP SAYS TO CUT FOOD AID TO YEMEN FOR WANT OF FUNDS

Wed 22 December 2021:

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it will reduce food aid to Yemen beginning in January due to a lack of funds.

“From January, eight million (Yemenis) will receive a reduced food ration, while (the other) five million at immediate risk of slipping into famine conditions will remain on a full ration,” the humanitarian agency said in a statement on its website.

“Every time we reduce the amount of food, we know that more people who are already hungry and food insecure will join the ranks of the millions who are starving,” said WFP Middle East and North Africa director Corinne Fleischer, according to the statement.

“But desperate times call for desperate measures and we have to stretch our limited resources and prioritise, focusing on people who are in the most critical state.”

Over half of Yemen’s population, 16.2 million people, are food insecure. According to the statement, half of Yemeni children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that it will require $1.97 billion in 2022 to continue providing critical food assistance to families on the verge of starvation.

WFP regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Corinne Fleischer, urged donors to help avoid a “looming hunger catastrophe.”

The WFP’s announcement on Wednesday comes as UN aid flights into Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa have been halted following air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government.

Flights into Sanaa airport have largely ceased because of a Saudi-led blockade since August 2016, but there have been exemptions for aid flights that are a lifeline for the population.

Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and drove President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognized government out of the capital Sanaa.

The country’s economy has collapsed as a result of the seven-year war, putting millions of people on the verge of starvation.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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