The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) had Wednesday stressed the need to provide emergency food aid to millions of families in Yemen, now more than ever before.
“The food aid provided by the World Food Program is a lifeline for millions of families in Yemen who need our support,” the program said on its Twitter account.
On Tuesday, the United States announced that a number of relief organisations would be exempt from the sanctions imposed by Washington on Yemen following its designation of Yemeni revolutionary political movement Ansarullah as a “terrorist organisation”.
The US Treasury said, in a statement on its website Tuesday, that the Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued four general licenses that include the official business of the United States government, the official activities of some international organisations, and some transactions to support the activities of NGOs in Yemen, in addition to transactions related to the export or re-export of agricultural commodities, medicines, and medical devices.
Over the past five years of war, the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, as well as continued bombings, have killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians, and caused the destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure, the spread of epidemics and diseases, and famine in some areas.
About 22 million people, 75 percent of Yemen’s population, need some form of humanitarian assistance and protection.
