UN: Millions face hunger in Yemen due to rising food prices, political instability

UN: Millions face hunger in Yemen due to rising food prices, political instability

2011-10-13 06:50:46 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Wednesday warned that Yemen is facing a serious humanitarian situation because of rising food prices and political instability.

The agency said in a news release that it is scaling up efforts to feed 3.5 million people affected by the crisis. "The challenges to reach and meet the urgent needs of the most vulnerable are huge, especially in the midst of a very volatile security situation," said Lubna Alaman, WFP's representative in Yemen.

A recent WFP assessment revealed that an increasing number of people are unable to meet their basic food needs, placing families and children at risk of malnutrition. "Even before the crisis, more than 50 percent of Yemeni children were chronically malnourished and more than 13 per cent were acutely malnourished," WFP said.

Violence in Yemen has continued to escalate after President Ali Abdullah Saleh threatened with civil war after refusing, for a third time, to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative for power transition on May 22. The uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh has claimed at least 1,500 lives since February.

Tensions have further escalated since Saleh returned to Yemen after spending more than three months in Saudi Arabia to recover from injuries he sustained in a rocket attack which hit the mosque of the presidential palace in Sanaa on June 3. On Saturday, Saleh said he is planning to leave power 'in the coming days', although a ruling party official immediately said that Saleh has no intention to leave.

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