UN delivered food to 9.5mn people in Yemen last month, just shy of target

The UN’s World Food Program said on Tuesday that it delivered food and food vouchers to more than 9.5 million hungry people in Yemen in December. The figure is just shy of its monthly target of 10 million due to insecurity in the country, which is threatened by famine. “We were hoping to arrive at 10 million. We delivered a bit less because the actual situation slowed distribution in some areas, the security was not as good,” WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said in Geneva. In January, the WFP managed to deliver food to two hard-hit areas of Hodeidah – Tuhayta and Darahimi – for the first time since July, thanks to a de-escalation in fighting, Reuters quoted Verhoosel as saying.