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Humanitarian crisis in Yemen needs further donations - WFP

ROME, Dec 22 (KUNA) -- With more than eight million people now dependent on food assistance for survival in Yemen, the fate of those caught up in the country's long running conflict is now in the hands of a small number of donor governments, UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement on Friday.
It added that nearly 80 percent of WFP funding for Yemen this year has been provided by the US, Germany, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, with the US providing the largest single amount (USD 386 million).
"We are more than 1,000 days into the Yemen crisis, and the only way we're able to continue to offer assistance for millions of Yemenis is due to the generosity of a handful of dedicated countries," said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
He added that the people of these countries and their governments are saving lives in Yemen every day.
Despite the generosity of these donors, WFP operations in Yemen require an additional USD277 million to provide food assistance through June of 2018, he said.
Since last August, WFP has provided food assistance to seven million people, but about half of these people received only 60 percent of their ratios due to limited funding, he stated.
In Yemen, an estimated 22.2 million people require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, including 17.8 million people who require emergency food assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
At least 1.8 million children between six months and five years are suffering from acute malnutrition, in addition to 400,000 children under five years of chronic and serious malnutrition and 1.1 million pregnant or lactating women are seriously malnourished. (end) mn.hm