16 Million People in Yemen ‘Marching Toward Starvation’

Sixteen million people in Yemen “are marching toward starvation,” the head of the United Nations food agency said Wednesday during a meeting on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The World Food Program, which feeds millions of people around the world, is running out of money and will reduce the rations it provides to at least 3.2 million people in October and for 5 million by December, David Beasley said during the high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. After Wednesday’s meeting, and a virtual pledging meeting held in March, there is still a $1 billion shortfall in the money needed to feed people in Yemen, who have been suffering through seven years of a violent civil war, that has led to the devaluation of the country’s currency and a steep rise in food prices.  Meanwhile, some 11.3 million Yemeni children need humanitarian assistance to survive, the head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF told the meeting.