GENEVA 

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday that food assistance is the only thing preventing Yemenis from facing crippling levels of hunger.

“The humanitarian situation in Yemen is deteriorating at an alarming rate. We must act now. If we wait for the famine to be declared, it will be already too late and people will already be dying,” WFP spokesperson, Elisabeth Byrs, warned at a UN press briefing in Geneva.

She said the WFP has been forced to reduce emergency food assistance at a time Yemen needs it most.

“Over 20 million people are food insecure of whom 13 million receive humanitarian food assistance, and nearly 10 million people are facing acute food shortages,” she said.

The WFP official said 3.65 million people have been internally displaced in over five years of conflict, with less than half the health facilities fully functioning and nearly half of all children stunted by malnutrition.

Yemen is facing a crisis on multiple fronts with imports having declined, food prices soaring, the riyal currency is in freefall, and foreign currency reserves are nearing total depletion.

“Added to that, there has been an escalation of fighting and coronavirus is sweeping unchecked across the country,” Byrs said.

“Our goal is to maintain a safety net for people for as long as possible. We will continue every other month distributions for the foreseeable future, but the WFP needs $737 million by the end of the year to feed Yemenis."

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis, including civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as millions remain at risk of starvation.