UN agency pleads for access to Yemeni city of Taiz to avoid humanitarian tragedy

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday called for safe and immediate access to Taiz, a city of Yemen, to prevent humanitarian tragedy as food insecurity threatens the lives of tens of thousands there, said a UN spokesman.

"WFP is deeply concerned about the dire food security situation in the city of Taiz in southern Yemen, where a lack of humanitarian access has left tens of thousands of people without food assistance for more than a month," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric at Thursday's daily briefing.

According to the spokesman, WFP food assistance last reached Taiz more than five weeks ago through the organization's local partner, which distributed food assistance to nearly 240,000 conflict-affected people in the city.

A June report classified Taiz and nine other governorates of the country as facing food insecurity at "emergency" level -- one step below famine on a five-point international scale. It revealed that Taiz was the worst affected in Yemen with the price of diesel increasing by 500 percent compared to pre-crisis levels and the price of wheat flour doubling, according to the UN spokesman.

WFP has overcome extreme challenges to reach 1 million people in Yemen every month on average since the conflict started this year. In September and October, WFP provided food assistance to more than 2 million people each month, according to WFP.

Violence since late March has exacerbated Yemen's already poor food security.

According to recent estimates, 7.6 million people are severely food insecure, a level of need requiring urgent external food assistance, said WFP. Endit