Half of Yemenis, or 16.2 million people, face acute hunger. Half the children under five – 2.3 million – are at risk of malnutrition.
As the war in Yemen continues into 2022 – the ninth calendar year of the conflict – the World Food Program (WFP) has warned that it is running out of funds, and will be unable to continue to provide food assistance to 13 million people in Yemen. From January 2022, eight million will receive reduced food rations.
Five million at immediate risk of famine conditions will remain on full rations.
Last October, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that three-quarters of Yemen’s children suffer “malnutrition”
In the last three months of 2021 rates of food, shortage have soared, such that half of all households in the country are now affected.
Both currency depreciation and hyperinflation have worsened an already desperate situation. Food prices have more than doubled in many parts of Yemen over the last year.
Meanwhile, fighting across multiple governorates, forcing families to flee.
Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa region, has said that “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. 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.”
And, Fleischer’s statement continued, “WFP’s stockpile in Yemen is dangerously depleted at a time when budgets for humanitarian crises around the world are stretched to the limit. We urgently need our donors, who have been so generous in the past, to work with us to avert a looming catastrophe of hunger.”
It has been reported that the WFP needs $(US) 813 million to continue its aid to Yemen until May of next year.
