UK boosts WFP efforts to avert famine and alleviate widespread suffering in Yemen

“We highly appreciate the generous support we continue to receive from the people and government of the UK that helps us provide crucial assistance to families,” said WFP Deputy Regional Director Nicolas Oberlin. “Entire families rely on our ability to continue to cover their most basic food needs and save them and their children from falling even deeper into hunger.”

The Department for International Development (DFID) contribution will boost WFP’s lifesaving efforts in two ways. First, DFID support will help establish a desperately needed supply of fuel that can sustain the humanitarian response and critical public services such as hospitals and water treatment plants. Second, the UK contribution will provide four months of life-saving food assistance to four million people in dire need of support, with another 680,000 people receiving food vouchers over two months.

DFID’s timely contribution comes at a moment when a severe scarcity of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and medicine have ravaged the lives of millions – spreading disease, interrupting commerce and pushing another million people to the brink of famine.

The UK Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt announced the contribution during a visit to the WFP Logistics Hub in Djibouti.

Tragically, the number of people on the brink of famine in Yemen continues to rise, with 8.4 million people wholly dependent on food aid to survive and more than 22 million people in need of some form of humanitarian support.

The UK government has been one of WFP’s most consistent and reliable partners in Yemen. In 2017 alone, the UK has generously contributed more than US$100 million to support WFP in its response to the hunger crisis in Yemen.

Each month, WFP aims to provide food assistance to nearly seven million people in Yemen. WFP requires US$257 million to sustain life-saving support through May 2018.  

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.

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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):

Mohamed Megahed, WFP/Amman, Tel. +962 791295749

Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2010 66634352

Reem Nada, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2010 66634522

Frances Kennedy, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65133725, Mob. +39 346 7600806

Bettina Luescher, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. + 41-79-842-8057

Francis Mwanza, WFP/London, Tel.  +44 20 72409001, Mob.  +44 7968 008474