Monday, February 11, 2019

When hunger is a weapon of war

The UN is urging the warring parties in Yemen to give it access to a vast store of grain that is desperately needed in a country on the brink of famine.
Aid workers have not been able to reach the Red Sea Mills, on the frontlines in the port of Hudaydah, for five months.
It holds enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, but the UN says it is now "at risk of rotting".
The UN's special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Mark Lowcock, warned that the urgency of getting access to the Red Sea Mills facility south of the port was "growing by the day".
"The World Food Programme (WFP) grain stored in the mills - enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month - has been inaccessible for over five months and is at risk of rotting," they said in a joint statement. The UN officials emphasised that ensuring access to the mills was a "shared responsibility among the parties to the conflict in Yemen"

No comments: