Yemen: World Food Programme announces major aid cuts

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday the reduction of all its major relief programmes in Yemen, starting from the end of September, due to a severe funding crisis.

The WFP shared in a statement on its website that it is: “Facing a deeper funding crisis for its Yemen operations from the end of September onward. This will force WFP to make difficult decisions about further cuts to our food assistance programmes across the country in the coming months. All of WFP’s major programmes will be affected – General Food Assistance (GFA), Nutrition, School Feeding and Resilience Activities – totalling 17.7 million interventions in the first half of 2023.”

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“Under General Food Assistance (GFA), 13.1 million beneficiaries across Yemen are currently receiving rations equivalent to approximately 40 per cent of the standard food basket,” explained the WFP statement, noting: “Without new funding, WFP expects that as many as three million people in the north could be impacted and 1.4 million beneficiaries in the south.”

The statement quoted WFP’s Yemen representative Richard Ragan divulging: “We are confronted with the incredibly tough reality of making decisions to take food from the hungry to feed the starving while millions of Yemenis continue to rely on us for survival.”

“We do not take this decision lightly and are fully cognizant of the suffering these cuts will cause,” Ragan added.

Yemen has been witnessing a nine-year war between government forces and the Houthi group, causing difficult humanitarian and health conditions and a sharp deterioration in the country’s economy.

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