Famine a real possibility in Yemen
Global charity warns of financial crisis knock-on
Signs of a financial crisis are raising the spectre of famine in conflict-ridden Yemen, where millions of people are already going hungry, Oxfam said yesterday.
The possibilities of tightening credit and a currency devaluation threaten the Arab Peninsula’s poorest nation, which imports nearly all its food and needs a functioning economic system to fund those shipments, the global charity said.
Half of the country’s residents, about 14.4 million people, already struggle to buy food and need assistance in a crisis going largely unheeded in the international community.
“An invisible food crisis risks turning famine warnings into a reality over the coming months,” Oxfam said.
Aid agencies and some countries have been trying to alleviate the growing food crisis. The UAE has given 29,000 tonnes of food to the Yemeni people, which has benefited about 1.1 million, Wam, the UAE’s state news agency, reported last month.
Earlier this week, the Emirates Red Crescent distributed 11,200 food parcels to people in Taez province, Wam reported.
Oxfam reported instances of people eating only one meal a day in Taez city, the provincial capital. Yemen imports roughly 90 per cent of its food. Wheat, sugar, powdered milk and rice are among the essential goods that have grown scarce since war intensified in Yemen a year ago.
The shortages stem in part from nervous financial markets following reports that Yemen’s Central Bank may cut credit lines that guarantee payment for incoming wheat and rice cargoes.
Threats to Yemen’s currency, the riyal, reportedly at risk of devaluation, could also cause food prices to rise. Already impoverished Yemenis “will not be able to withstand the rising prices for food if importers are unable to trade,” said Sajjad Mohamed Sajid, Oxfam’s director in Yemen.
A Saudi-led coalition, including the UAE, is backing government forces in Yemen to restore the internationally recognised government of Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.
Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have seized large areas of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. Al Qaeda and ISIL have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their reach.
“A catastrophe on top of catastrophe has created one of the biggest humanitarian emergencies in the world today,” Mr Sajid said.
“Yet most people are unaware of it.”
Raising hopes of an end to the violence, UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said yesterday that Yemen’s warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10, along with peace talks in Kuwait beginning April 18.
There have been several failed attempts to defuse the conflict.
“This is really our last chance,” said Mr Ould Cheikh Ahmed.