The UN World Food Programme has warned it is running out of funds to keep helping nourish the neediest in war-wracked Yemen and will be cutting food aid to eight million people next month.
From January, eight million people will receive a reduced amount of food, while five million who are at immediate risk of famine will remain on a full ration, Rome-based WFP said in a statement on Wednesday.
WFP urgently needs 813 million dollars of fresh funds to be able to keep helping the most vulnerable of Yemen's population through May, the statement said.
Unless enough funds are received from international donors, more drastic cuts in food aid will soon be unavoidable, WFP said.
"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," said Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
"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,” Fleischer said.
The cuts to food rations come at the worst possible time for families in Yemen who are dependent on WFP’s assistance to survive, the UN agency said.
The proportion of families who have not been getting enough to eat has risen rapidly to one in two over the past three months as currency devaluation and hyper-inflation drives the economy to near collapse.
Food prices have more than doubled across much of Yemen this year. Meanwhile, fighting across multiple front-lines continues to force families to flee.
With food assistance reductions from January, families will receive barely half of WFP's daily minimum ration, the UN agency said.
This could see people cut from food assistance programmes completely and malnutrition treatment and school feeding for children may also be reduced, WFP warned.
“The Yemeni people are now more vulnerable than ever, reeling from relentless conflict and the deepening economic crisis that has pushed millions into destitution,” said Fleischer.
“WFP food stocks in Yemen are running dangerously low at a time when budgets for humanitarian crises around the world are stretched to the limit. We desperately need donors, who were so generous in the past, to work with us to avoid this looming hunger catastrophe.”
Over half Yemen's population or 16.2 million people now face severe hunger and half of children under five (2.3 million) are at risk of malnutrition, WFP stated.
