Yemen – Food Assistance Fact Sheet, updated August 13, 2018

SITUATION

• In Yemen, an estimated 22.2 million people require humanitarian assistance in order to meet their basic needs, including 17.8 million people who require emergency food assistance, according to the UN.
• Due to ongoing conflict, Yemen is the largest food security emergency in the world, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). FEWS NET reports that large populations across Yemen face Crisis (IPC 3)* or Emergency (IPC 4) levels of food insecurity. The poorest and most vulnerable families could experience Catastrophe (IPC 5) levels of acute food insecurity as vulnerable people exhaust their coping capacities, such as selling assets or incurring debt to buy food, and are unable to access adequate food to meet their basic needs.
• In June 2018, the Republic of Yemen Government—supported by a Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-led military coalition—began a military offensive to retake the Red Sea ports of Al Hudaydah and Al Saleef from Houthi separatists. Traditionally, these ports supplied approximately 90 percent of the country’s monthly food requirements and 40–50 percent of the country’s fuel needs; FEWS NET warns that prolonged disruption of the ports’ operations likely would tip pockets of the country into Famine (IPC 5) conditions.

*The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a standardized tool that aims to classify the severity and magnitude of acute food insecurity. The IPC scale, which is comparable across countries, ranges from Minimal (IPC 1) to Famine (IPC 5).

RESPONSE

• In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 to date, USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has contributed more than $323 million to support UN partners in Yemen, including the UN World Food Program (WFP). During this period, WFP reached approximately 6.8 million severely food-insecure individuals monthly with in-kind food assistance and food vouchers across 20 of Yemen’s 22 governorates.
• Since the beginning of FY 2017, FFP has supported UN agencies and non-governmental organization (NGO) implementing partners with more than $670 million in emergency food assistance, including the provision of U.S.-sourced wheat, peas and vegetable oil, locally- and regionally-procured food and food vouchers for Yemen’s most vulnerable populations.
• FFP support also provides therapeutic nutritional products to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the treatment of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen. Additionally, FFP supports the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the lead coordinating body for the cluster of international organizations responding to food insecurity in Yemen.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-food-assistance-fact-sheet-updated-august-13-2018