Yemen grains face risk of rotting: UN

sanaa — Food aid in a warehouse on the frontlines of the Yemen war is at risk of rotting, the UN said on Monday, leaving millions of Yemenis without access to life-saving sustenance.

The Red Sea Mills silos, located in the western port city of Hodeida, are believed to contain enough grain to feed several million people for a month. But the granary has remained off-limits to aid organisations for months.

“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,” read a joint statement by the UN aid chief and special envoy for Yemen.

Hodeida, and its food silos, have been in the hands of Yemen’s Houthi rebels since 2014, when the insurgents staged a takeover of large swathes of Yemeni territories. The coup prompted the military intervention of Saudi Arabia and its allies the following year on behalf of the embattled government, triggering what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 10 million Yemenis stand at the brink of starvation.

United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths, who in December secured a ceasefire agreement for Hodeida between the Iran-backed rebels and Saudi-led coalition, and United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock on Monday said the rebels had made “efforts to re-open the road leading to the mills” in the joint statement. —

The World Food Programme 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

A UN statement