UN: Shortfalls will disrupt already limited Yemen food aid

AMMAN, Jordan – The U.N. will be forced to scale back already limited food distribution in war-scarred Yemen by August because of severe funding shortages, a senior official said Wednesday.

About 14 million people, or roughly half the country’s population, suffer from food insecurity at “crisis” or “emergency” levels, said George Khoury, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen. Emergency level is just one step before famine on the U.N.’s food insecurity scale.

The World Food Program currently reaches about 3.5 million people in Yemen every month.

Khoury said in an interview that without more funding, “we don’t have enough money to feed even these people.”

The WFP would need about $200 million to keep its food distribution at current levels in the coming months, he said.

U.N. agencies requested $1.8 billion in overall aid for Yemen in 2016, but only 20 per cent of that money has arrived, Khoury said.

The Yemen conflict pits Shiite Houthi rebels and allied troops loyal to a former president against Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

The Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee, first to the southern port city of Aden and later to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led military coalition launched a large-scale airstrike campaign in March 2015 and later began on-the-ground military operations to retake rebel positions. The U.S.-backed coalition had success in driving the rebels from some southern cities but has been unable to dislodge them from the capital and other strongholds in the north.

The conflict has killed some 9,000 people since March 2015 — a third of them civilians, according to the United Nations.