Almost Half of Yemenis in Acute Food Insecurity: UN Data

Date: 04 December 2020 - 21:02

News ID: ۸۵۰۵۷

SANA’A (Dispatches) – Famine-like conditions have re-appeared in parts of Yemen and almost half the population is experiencing high levels of food insecurity, new United Nations data shows, with aid agencies warning time is running out to prevent mass starvation.
Around 45% of Yemen’s population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
Within this number, 33% of the population are in crisis, 12% are in emergency and 16,500 people are in a catastrophic, famine-like situation, the worst level of the IPC classifications.
The outlook for next year is worse, the IPC analysis said. Between January and June 2021, 54% of Yemenis - 16.2 million people - are likely to experience high levels of acute food insecurity.
Those in a catastrophic state will likely increase to 47,000 people.
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General Qu Dongyu said, "Keeping people alive by maintaining the flow of food is imperative, but this cycle cannot continue forever.”
He added, "Yemen needs a cessation of conflict, which is the primary driver of food insecurity in the country.”
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.
The U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives.
The WFP apparently provides emergency food assistance to 13 million people in Yemen amid the Saudi war. Nevertheless, only 8.5 million of them have been able to receive such assistance on alternate months since April, amid funding shortages.
The humanitarian agency noted it needs at least $1.9 billion in 2021 to provide the minimum amount of food assistance needed to prevent widespread famine in Yemen.
The United Nations and international aid agencies have also warned the U.S. against its plan to label Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’, raising concerns that such a move would prevent life-saving aid reaching the war-wracked country and would derail a related $700 million aid program.
David Beasley, executive director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), told the Washington Post daily newspaper earlier this week that the designation could hamper aid deliveries.
Beasley’s warning came after he had a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, where he expressed "grave concerns” about the blacklisting of Ansarullah.
"WFP is deeply concerned about the potential impact of a decision by the U.S. to designate Ansarullah as a foreign terrorist organization,” an unnamed WFP spokesperson said.
"It would heighten the gravity of an already severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” the spokesperson added.
Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Yemen is teetering on the brink of "the worst famine the world has seen for decades,” voicing concerns about the U.S. decision to label Ansarullah a terrorist organization.