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UN food agency to aid displaced people in Yemen despite challenges

Xinhua, April 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners announced Thursday they will be distributing food to some 105,000 displaced people in Yemen's main southern city of Aden over the next few days, a UN spokesman said Thursday.

"The agency remains concerned about the challenges of feeding millions of people, who are now food insecure, amid a deteriorating security situation," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

Yemen imports almost 90 percent of its basic food from abroad, he said. "WFP is also extremely concerned that the challenges in importing food will further affect people's ability to feed their families, especially the poor and most vulnerable communities."

Meanwhile, the WFP warned that with millions in need amid the deepening crisis, its supplies are now running low.

"We appeal to all warring parties to the conflict to allow us to replenish our food and fuel stocks to save lives," Purnima Kashyap, a WFP representative and Yemen country director, said in a statement.

"We have prepositioned food in the last few days before the fighting flared up, but we are struggling to reach people due to the deteriorating security situation," Kashyap said.

Two weeks of escalating violence have left many Yemenis hungry, trapped inside their cities and villages with food stocks running low.

There are also severe fuel shortages, especially in Aden and areas of the capital, Sanaa. The situation is of particular concern because almost half of Yemen's population is food-insecure, struggling to grow or buy food.

The security situation has deteriorated in Yemen since January when the Shiite Houthi group seized the presidential palace in Sanaa after deadly clashes with presidential guards.

The Shiite Houthi group, also known as Ansarullah and based in the far northern province of Saada, has been expanding its influence southward after signing a UN-sponsored peace and power-sharing deal on Sept. 21, 2014 following week-long deadly clashes. Endi