UN Warns of Four-Month Lean Period in Yemen

The number of households experiencing inadequate food consumption has increased to 49 percent across Yemen, said a FAO report. (Local media)
The number of households experiencing inadequate food consumption has increased to 49 percent across Yemen, said a FAO report. (Local media)
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UN Warns of Four-Month Lean Period in Yemen

The number of households experiencing inadequate food consumption has increased to 49 percent across Yemen, said a FAO report. (Local media)
The number of households experiencing inadequate food consumption has increased to 49 percent across Yemen, said a FAO report. (Local media)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that Yemen would be facing a lean period from June to September due to a decrease in humanitarian food assistance in Houthi-controlled areas and a projected increase in food prices in areas held by the legitimate government.

In its quarterly food security update, the FAO said that despite a brief relief experienced from mid-March through April this year due to augmented social support (zakat) during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, food security is anticipated to deteriorate from June to September, marking “the peak of the lean period in the country.”

FAO noted that during the first quarter of 2024, the food security situation deteriorated compared to the same period last year.

Therefore, the number of households experiencing inadequate food consumption has increased to 49 percent nationwide.

The organization expected these deteriorations to persist, adding that household purchasing power has significantly decreased due to the decline in seasonal agricultural and casual labor opportunities. In addition, civil servants are facing extreme delayed salary payments amid a challenging economic outlook while reduced humanitarian food assistance is increasing dependence on markets, it showed.

The report noted that despite increased disruptions in the Red Sea, the importation of food and fuel imports continue normally, ensuring sufficient food supplies in the markets.

Moreover, the report said political violence fell to historic lows as the attention has been shifted to the Red Sea and consequently, there was a drop in new internal displacements of people.

According to FAO High Frequency Monitoring, the proportion of households with inadequate food consumption nationally rose to 49 percent in March 2024, up from 43 percent in the last quarter and 47 percent during the same month last year.

In Houthi-controlled areas, inadequate food consumption in March 2024 showed an increase from 6 to 8 percent higher than in the same quarter of 2023.

In the first quarter of 2024, the FAO report said most of the governorates experiencing the largest declines in food consumption are in Houthi-controlled areas, including Al-Jawf, Hajja, Taiz, Saadah, Marib and Raymah, compared to Aden and Hadramout in government-controlled areas.

Field reports also indicated a surge in the number of malnourished children during the period under review.

The cholera situation in Yemen, spanning from March 14 to April 2, 2024, continues to raise concerns, FAO said.

The Ministry of Health counted a total of 7,364 suspected cases. Among these, there are 260 confirmed cases and 66 deaths. The primary sources of contamination are raw vegetables and fruits (67%) and water (33%).

Approximately 71.4 percent of surveyed households reported a decline in their primary income, a significant increase from the 61 percent recorded during the same period in 2023, the FAO report noted.

It added that in March 2024, agricultural casual labor income decreased for 71% of households in SBA areas, compared to 60.3% in the same month in 2023.

And despite an average increase in agricultural and casual labor rates by 13-14% in the government areas in March, these rates remained relatively stable in Houthi-controlled areas.

Meanwhile, labor opportunities have decreased year on year, leading to reduced household income in March 2024, as indicated by 26% of households reporting reduced income as a major shock, a significant rise from 12.4% the previous year, relatively higher in Houthi-controlled areas (28%) than in the legitimate government areas (20%).

The report said various regions, including Al-Bayda, Sanaa, Dhamar, Hadramout, Hajjah, Lahj, Raymah, Shabwah and Taiz, reported higher income reductions than during the same period the year before.



Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.

"People will die because of these decisions," said a Sudanese fundraising volunteer, who has been scrambling to find money to feed tens of thousands of people in the capital Khartoum.

"We have 40 kitchens across the country feeding between 30,000 to 35,000 people every day," another Sudanese volunteer told AFP, saying all of them had closed after Trump announced the freezing of foreign assistance and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Women and children are being turned away and we can't promise them when we can feed them again," she said, requesting anonymity for fear that speaking publicly could jeopardize her work.

In much of Sudan, community-run soup kitchens are the only thing preventing mass starvation and many of them rely on US funding.

"The impact of the decision to withdraw funding in this abrupt manner has life-ending consequences," Javid Abdelmoneim, medical team leader at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.

"This is yet another disaster for people in Sudan, already suffering the consequences of violence, hunger, a collapse of the healthcare system and a woeful international humanitarian response," he added.

Shortly after his inauguration last month, Trump froze US foreign aid and announced the dismantling of USAID.

His administration then issued waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance", but there have so far been no signs of this taking effect in Sudan and aid workers said their efforts were already crippled.

In what the United Nations has decried as a global "state of confusion", agencies on the ground in Sudan have been forced to halt essential food, shelter and health operations.

"All official communications have gone dark," another Sudanese aid coordinator told AFP, after USAID workers were put on leave this week.

The kitchens that have survived "are stretching resources and sharing as much as they can", he said.

"But there's just not enough to go around."

As one of the few independent organizations still standing in Sudan, MSF said it had been fielding requests from local responders to quickly step in.

However, "MSF can't fill the gap left by the US funding withdrawal," Abdelmoneim said.

The United States was the largest single donor to Sudan last year, contributing $800 million or around 46 percent of funds to the UN's response plan.

The UN estimates it currently has less than 6 percent of the humanitarian funding needed for Sudan in 2025.

Over 8 million people are on the brink of famine in Sudan, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Famine is expected to spread to at least five more areas of Sudan by May, before the upcoming rainy season is likely to make access to food all the more difficult across the country.