WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on humanitarian situation in Yemen
As the holiday of Eid al-Adha approaches, our thoughts are with tens of
thousands of displaced people in northern
Yemen who will not be able to celebrate Eid
in their own homes.The United Nations World Food Programme and
partners such as Islamic Relief and the
Adventist Development and Relief Agency
(ADRA) have been working tirelessly to
ensure that displaced Yemen is have access
to humanitarian assistance and especially
food.Since the conflict in northern Yemen
re-erupted in August, we have distributed
more than 2,000 metric tons of food to more
than 100,000 people across Sa’ada, Hajjah,
Amran, and Al Jawf governorates.While access has been difficult, and
thousands of families remain trapped by the
fighting, we have opened up new supply
routes, including bringing assistance
across the border from the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. In this way, we reached some 10,000
hungry people in the border district of
Baqim. A second convoy to the area is on
its way, transporting food assistance for
the increasing numbers of hungry.We are still worried about the situation in
Sa’ada town, which has been virtually cut
off from the rest of the world for more
than three months now, and we are calling
for localized humanitarian ceasefires and
humanitarian corridors to allow for safe
and uninterrupted access to families who
remain trapped by the conflict so that
further displacement and suffering can be
avoided.
