UN: Food insecurity in Yemen is at its worst level in four years
October 1, 2022
207 1 minute read
Yemen, Hajja, 21 April 2016
In Yemen, millions of people are on the brink of famine. The lack of immediate and unhindered access to people who urgently need food assistance compounded by a shortage of funding means that famine is a possibility for millions of people, mostly women and children who are already hungry in this war-torn country.
Almost 14.4 million people in Yemen are food insecure. This includes more than seven million people in desperate need of food assistance; that is one in five of the countrys population. Yemen has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world and now an estimated 1 in 5 people are severely food insecure and in urgent need of food assistance.
The nutrition situation continues to deteriorate. According to WFP market analysis, prices of food items spiked in September as a result of the escalation of the conflict. The national average price of wheat flour last month was 55 percent higher compared to the pre-crisis period.
Humanitarian organizations need to be able to move freely and safely to provide assistance to reach all those in urgent need before they fall deeper into crisis.
In March, WFP reached a total of over 3 million people in 17 governorates with emergency food assistance. Nine of those governorates are in the grip of severe food insecurity at Emergency level one step below famine on the five-point Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale.
In the Photo: an employee hand a WFP food ration to a family at a center used to hand WFP food rations in Hajja city where many displaced Yemenis live.
Photo: WFP/Asmaa Waguih
The World Food Program said that last August witnessed the worst level of deterioration in food insecurity in Yemen in four years.
In its latest update on food security in Yemen, the United Nations Program confirmed the continued deterioration of food insecurity over the past month, as “food consumption recorded its worst level during the past four years.”
A survey conducted by the program, which included a number of families from different parts of Yemen, showed that they were not able to obtain enough food to meet their minimum needs.
The survey also indicated that food insufficiency exceeded extremely high levels of 40% in 19 provinces.
The World Food Program provides food for 13 million people a month in Yemen, whose economy has collapsed due to the ongoing war for the eighth year in a row.
