Brussels-New York: Europe and the Arabs
The World Food Program said it was forced to make further cuts to the food assistance programs it provides to millions across Yemen in the coming months.
The program stated in a statement, which came in the United Nations news bulletin on its website, that this step comes due to the major funding crisis it is facing to finance its operations in Yemen, starting from the end of next September.

Yemen needs one of the largest food assistance operations of the World Food Programme.
WFP said the funding shortfall would affect all of its major programmes, including general food assistance, school feeding and resilience-building activities.
Under general food assistance, 13.1 million beneficiaries across Yemen are currently receiving food rations equivalent to approximately 40 percent of the standard food basket.
The program warned that about 3 million people in the north and 1.4 million beneficiaries in the south will be affected if new financing is not obtained.
The World Food Program said it had to make cuts in malnutrition prevention activities in Yemen that previously targeted 1.4 million people.

More people suffer from acute malnutrition
Due to a lack of resources, WFP will only be able to assist 128,000 people in Yemen out of the 2.4 million children, pregnant and lactating women and girls initially targeted.
Although the life-saving MAM program is still running, WFP has already had to cut 60 percent of the previously planned programme, with 526,000 people receiving assistance in the north and 145,300 in the south out of a total of 1.9 million people. Someone who has been planning to help them through the year.
The program indicated that the lack of funding comes at a time when more people are suffering from acute malnutrition.
He stated that he expected to provide assistance to only 1.8 million children as part of the school feeding program for this academic year, which is a decrease from the intended target of assisting 3.2 million children.
The UN program stated that it had reduced the scope and size of its activities aimed at supporting building resilience and livelihoods due to lack of funding, noting that it had so far only been able to assist 319,000 people out of the two million people that were planned to be assisted during this year.

Take food from hungry to hungry
“We are facing the difficult reality of taking food out of hungry people's mouths to feed other hungry people, while millions of Yemenis continue to depend on us for their survival,” said Richard Ragan, WFP Representative in Yemen. The decision is made lightly, and we are fully aware of the suffering that will result from these cuts."
To ensure that the neediest and most vulnerable families receive assistance, WFP will pilot a targeting and registration scheme in the north starting in September, with full operation starting in October. This plan is currently underway in the south
WFP stated that its operations depended entirely on voluntary contributions. Over the next six months, the program requires a total of $1.05 billion in funding, but has so far only secured 28 percent of that money.