Yemen is looking for new sources of grain, but will need help to pay for increasingly expensive imports, officials and the country’s main import company have said, as the World Food Program (WFP) warns of cuts in aid. to millions of people living on the brink of starvation.
Disruptions in world grain supplies due to the war in Ukraine and the export ban from India are in danger of exacerbating food crisis in Yemen and increase inflation in the country, which has almost doubled in two years.
THE Ukraine and Russia is among the largest exporters of grain and the war between them has caused a sharp rise in prices. Yemen imports 90% of the food consumed by its population.
WFP’s director in Yemen, Richard Ragan, said the number of people in the war-torn country living in near-famine conditions could reach seven million in the second half of 2022, up from about five million now.
The UN service provides food to 13 million people every month in Yemen, whose economy has collapsed after seven years of war. Since January, WFP has reduced its shares by eight million of them. He may soon be forced to make further cuts, as he has failed to raise more than a quarter of the $ 2 billion needed for Yemen this year.
“We take food from the poor to feed the hungry,” Ragan explained. “In June we will have to make some difficult decisions to reduce to just five million people to whom we provide food, to those who are most at risk,” he added.
Yemen needs about 4 million tonnes of grain each year, and “we have about 25% of that,” Ragan said, adding that the WFP had seen fuel and food costs increase by $ 25 million to $ 30 million a month. .
Yemen has had enough grain for three months, Commerce Minister Mohammed al-Aswal from Aden said last week. He noted that the government is pushing for the use of $ 174 million in aid from Saudi Arabia to import basic goods, including grain.
Riyadh had agreed earlier this month to pay Yemen the last tranche of a loan promised to the country in 2018.
“The government and importers are looking at alternative markets for grain imports, such as Brazil and others, to meet 45% of the grain needs imported from Ukraine and Russia,” al-Aswal said.
The war between the Arab League under Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Houthi rebels who control most of northern Yemen has devalued the country’s currency and there is a shortage of foreign currency.
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