3.4mn Yemenis on verge of starvation

The UN food aid agency has appealed to international donors to cover up for a massive shortfall in funding for some 3.4 million starving Yemenis.

If the current situation continues some 500,000 hungry Yemenis, whose food rations have already decreased to half, will face a virtually complete exhaustion of stocks by August, UN World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday.

Some 7.2 million people, one third of Yemen's population, suffer from chronic hunger, about 3.4 million of who depend on food aid, said the UN agency. More than one in 10 children suffers from acute malnutrition and more than half of those under five are underweight, it added.

Briefing reporters in Geneva on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella said the agency is currently only able to reach 475,000 people.

The WFP had to half its food ration due to a $75.3-million shortfall out of a total $103 million needed for 2010, focusing the shrunken aid on some 270,000 people displaced by clashes between government forces and Houthi fighters in and around the northern Sa'ada province, as well as a limited number of children under five and pregnant and lactating mothers.

"People have three other options after that -- revolt, migrate or die. A cut in rations is not a first step, it's a last resort," Casella said.

Half-rations provide 1,050 calories per person per day compared to the 2,100 standard amount, and by August WFP will run out of food almost completely, including nutritional support for 50,000 internally displaced children under five, she noted.

Oil-rich Yemen remains the poorest nation in the Arab world as the Sunni-dominated central government is struggling to weed out alleged al-Qaeda forces operating in the region while facing widespread protests from secessionists in the south.

The Sana'a government and Houthi fighters agreed to a ceasefire in February, months after the army launched a massive offensive in August 2009 in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the displaced avoid returning to their homes, fearing the mines and unexploded ordnance.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125532§ionid=351020206.