WFP Mounts Massive Emergency Response to Aid Desperate People of Yemen (For the Media)

The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, David Beasley, wrapped up a three-day visit to Yemen to see the scale of the humanitarian crisis and to step up combined efforts to help the Yemeni people. The country is facing a cholera outbreak in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. In the last three months alone, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded. Vital health, water and sanitation facilities have been crippled by more than two years of hostilities, and created the ideal conditions for diseases to spread. WFP urges all parties to the conflict to keep Hodeidah port open to ensure continuity of commercial and humanitarian shipments into the country. Closure of Hodeidah could tip the country into a full-fledged famine.