By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
SA’NA, Yemen – The UN World Food Program (WFP), facing huge budget shortfalls, is being forced to reduce rations for over 250,000 Yemenis who have been displaced by the conflict in the northern part of the country.
On 28 April the Government of Yemen – represented by H.E. Minister Ahmed Al-Kohlani, Minister of Parliament Affairs and Head of Executive Unit for IDPs – and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) – represented by Gian Carlo Cirri, Country Director –will be holding a press conference. The aim is to appeal for urgent support to allow WFP and key partners including Islamic Relief Yemen – represented by Khalid Almulad, Country Director – to maintain life-saving monthly food support to more than 250,000 persons displaced by the Sa’ada conflict. These families are entirely dependent on food assistance for survival.
WFP has received less than 30% of the funding it requires in order to maintain vital food and nutrition activities to displaced families and can no longer maintain its assistance. In order to make the increasingly limited quantities of food last longer, WFP will be required to reduce rations to 50% of the planned May basket. This means that rather than receiving 2,100 kcal per person per day – which is the minimum amount of food required for a healthy life – families will receive only some 1,050 kcal per person per day. Before September, WFP will have to suspend activities entirely, including nutrition support to 50,000 children under 5 years of age.
The WFP said it needs more than 77 million dollars to overcome the shortfall in its 2010 funding and continue operations in Yemen.
In order to make the increasingly limited quantities of food last longer in the meantime, the WFP said it would reduce rations to 50 per cent of the planned May basket. These ration cuts “will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UN agency predicted.
A WFP document obtained yesterday reads, “Reducing rations is not the solution, but rather a last resort. We have serious concerns about the impact that ration reductions will have on the nutrition and health status of families as they rely entirely on this assistance for survival. At this point we have no other option but to reduce rations in order to make the limited food quantities we have last longer until we get additional support…”
The dire funding situation is not limited to the IDP operation alone. Overall in 2010 WFP is facing a shortfall of 75% of its requirements, meaning that more than US$ 77 million are required or the agency will be forced to suspend operations in Yemen. As a result, more than 3.4 million persons overall will not receive the food and nutrition support they require, including malnourished mothers and children, families who are unable to meet their food needs, school girls, Somali refugees, and IDPs.
For more information, please see:
NewsFlash – Hunger Crisis Escalates In Yemen, U.S. Needs To Show Leadership – 28 April 2010
Examiner – World Food Programme Appeals For Support To Stop Hunger Crisis In Yemen – 28 April 2010
Earth Time – UN Warns Of Humanitarian ‘Catastrophe’ In Yemen Amid Funds Shortage – 28 April 2010
