UN agency scales up humanitarian operations in Yemen amid worsening food security

The World Food Programme (WFP) scaled up its operations in Yemen to reach five million people every month in the next three months as food security worsens in the country, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday.

"WFP is scaling up and aims to reach five million people every month by February 2016," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing.

"To do this, WFP requires 320 million (U.S.) dollars for the next six months, from November 2015 to April 2016," he said.

WFP said that Yemen's fragile food security is deteriorating fast, Dujarric said. "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."

Since October, WFP operations have scaled up and currently reach more than 2.8 million people each month, he said.

In November, WFP reached all 10 governorates on the edge of famine and delivered much-needed food assistance to more than 900,000 people, he added.

In Yemen, millions of people are on the brink of famine. The lack of immediate and unhindered access to those in urgent need of 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, WFP said.

Yemen has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world and now approximately 20 percent of its population, or one in five, is "severely food insecure."

According to WFP market analysis, prices of food items spiked in September due to the escalation of the conflict. The national average price of wheat flour last month was 45 percent higher compared to the pre-crisis period. Enditem