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WFP Yemen Situation Report #26, 21 February 2017

Countries
Yemen
Sources
WFP
Publication date

Highlights

  • So far in February, WFP has reached 3.9 million people in 16 governorates with food assistance through general food distribution (GFD), its Commodity Vouchers through Trader’s Network (CVTN) programme as well as through its food assistance to Horn of Africa refugees at the Kharaz refugee camp in Lahj governorate.

  • From January 2017 WFP is scaling up its GFD to reach 6 million beneficiaries per month. However, critical resourcing challenges, delays in food shipments into Yemen and multiple access challenges country-wide has led to a shortage of key food commodities (such as cereals) and severely limited WFP’s ability to reach its 6 million target in January while also causing challenges for February.

  • According to newly released preliminary results from the joint WFPFAO-UNICEF-implemented Emergency Food Security and Nutrition Assessment (EFSNA), 17 million Yemenis are food insecure (an increase from 14.4 million as assessed by the June 2016 Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis), of which 7.3 million are severely food insecure (an increase from 7 million as assessed by the IPC).

Situation Update

  • In February, WFP is continuing to respond to the deteriorating humanitarian and food security situation across the country. Escalated fighting in the Mokha and Dhubab districts of Taizz governorate has led to new civilian displacement, while WFP has experienced an unusually high number of incidents of food assistance-transporting trucks being delayed or detained at checkpoints en route to Taizz - resulting in a slower rate of deliveries and distributions. To respond to new displacements in Mokha and Dhubab, in January and February WFP distributed food to 12,000 people from Mokha and Mawza districts as well as 7,200 people in eight districts of Hudaydah that are hosting large numbers of displaced people.

  • In addition to resourcing constraints, vessels carrying commercial and humanitarian supplies have been experiencing protracted delays in accessing Hudaydah port (the principal entry point for humanitarian aid for Yemen’s northern governorates), which has discouraged several shipping lines from serving the port. Efforts to transport four WFP-procured mobile port cranes to Hudaydah to boost the port’s capacity are ongoing and cranes are temporarily being stored at the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in the United Arab Emirates pending Coalition clearance for transport to Hudaydah.