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UN food agency appeals for more funds, aiming to reach more hungry people in Yemen

Xinhua, June 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The World Food Programme ( WFP) on Tuesday announced that it is scaling up its operations to get emergency food aid to 2.5 million people in Yemen by July as a worsening crisis and growing number of hungry people were reported in the country.

"The conflict has increased the number of hungry people in the country," WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said, adding that during the next three months, WFP will need around 43 million U.S. dollars every month for the emergency distribution of full rations to some 2.5 million people.

There are currently 12.5 million food insecure people in Yemen, some two million more than when the crisis began. Until July, WFP will aim to provide emergency food assistance to 2.5 million people and it plans to increase that number from August, hoping to reach 12 million people by the end of the year.

So far, WFP has reached some 1.6 million people with nearly 20, 000 metric tonnes of food and ships continue to arrive. The WFP- chartered Amsterdam ship set for Yemen anchored at the country's Hudaydah port Monday, carrying some 5,700 metric tons of white flour, yellow split peas and vegetable oil. That is enough to feed around 60,000 Yemenis for a month.

Another WFP-chartered ship, MV Celine, carrying 7,000 tonnes of wheat flour, is expected to berth in Hudaydah in the next few days. The MV Copenhagen, transporting 1.5 million liters of fuel for partners, will depart Dubai for Hudaydah Thursday.

"A key problem is that prices continue to increase for all food commodities, limiting the functioning of food markets," Byrs told reporters.

WFP Yemen's weekly market monitoring report, covering the third week of May, found that food has largely disappeared from the shelves in several governorates, including in Abyan, Al Dhale'e, Aden, Lahj, Sa'ada and Shabwah.

"Food in those places is either sporadically available or completely unavailable," she said.

Moreover, food prices have skyrocketed. The price of wheat flour has risen 43 percent on average, with the highest rise recorded in Marib governorate at 115 percent since the start of the crisis. The cost of cooking gas has risen 131 percent on average. And there is also a severe shortage in clean water, power and fuel supplies.

Yemen imports almost 90 percent of its food from abroad. Endite