WFP funding crunch in Yemen sees millions go hungry

Photo taken on December 22, 2021 shows three-year-old Yemeni child Randa Ali, weighing only four kilos and suffering from acute malnutrition, is being checked by medics at the Al-Khudash camp for displaced people in the Abs district in the northwestern Hajjah governorate

The UN’s food aid arm, the World Food Programme, says it is being forced to cut rations to millions of starving people in war-ravaged Yemen in order to feed those starving to death there. The WFP’s director for the Middle East and North Africa region, Corinne Fleischer, said in an interview yesterday that donor money is drying up despite Yemen going through what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. “We have a big funding crunch,” she said. Donor money so far only covers 18% of the nearly 2bn dollars WFP needs for its Yemen operations, she said. “We need $806mn more in the next six months to feed 13mn people,” Fleischer said. The shortfall is already giving the UN organisation no choice but to ringfence money for 5mn people in Yemen “on the brink of famine” — meaning that the other 8mn suffering inadequate food supplies are getting half rations from the WFP. “One parent told us that they haven’t eaten for two days, to give the food to their children. Many say now they will have to return back to eating only bread and drinking tea. That’s clearly not enough for a healthy diet,” she said. “And then the most heartbreaking we’ve heard is that people start collecting leaves,” to eat. The WFP, Fleischer said, managed to avert famine last year because of donors’ generosity in giving $1.4bn. But the money given has plunged precipitously this year, which Fleischer attributed to needs globally that have gone up “drastically” as conflicts, climate change and Covid all dealt their impact.“Those who really need food assistance has gone from 115mn to 280mn. So of course, the needs have been growing,” she said. “Donors...have been generous, but also have to deal with their own issues around Covid and their economies. And so there is simply not much more money available.” The top donors to the WFP for its Yemen operations are the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Canada and Switzerland. Yemen, where a seven-year civil war has raged between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels, is one of many conflicts flaring around the planet. A coalition has been waging war on the Houthis since 2015 with the aim of reinstalling in Sanaa the internationally recognised government. The Houthis have responded to the missiles and airstrikes with drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and coalition partner United Arab Emirates.