The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that it is halting its food distribution programme in Yemen due to a severe fuel shortage in the country that has been plagued by heavy fighting since March.

The UN agency, which has over the past two weeks, provided emergency food assistance to 700,000 people in seven provinces, called on all sides in the Yemen conflict to allow food, fuel and other supplies to come into the country.

"We are reaching a point where we can no longer continue to move food from our warehouses to the people who desperately need it,"said Purnima Kashyap, WFP's Yemen country director.

Since Yemen imports almost 90 percent of its food, the WFP says it is "extremely concerned" about the impact on the population, especially on the most vulnerable given the inability of traders to bring in food from outside and transport it across the country.

"This is a country where half the population is considered food-insecure, meaning that many families do not know where their next meal will come from. They cannot absorb any further shocks and it is essential that we continue to reach these families with food," Kashyap said.

The agency is in urgent need of more than 200,000 litres of fuel to be able to continue distributing food supplies already in its warehouses, stocks that can feed 1.5 million people for one month.

Violence has escalated in Yemen since Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels took over the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.

A coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia launched a military operation dubbed Decisive Storm on March 26 in Yemen to prevent the rebels from seizing the entire territory and to restore the authority of Hadi.

The operation continues despite Riyadh announcing an end to the intensive air raids on April 21.

The Red Cross last week warned of a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the country after Saudi-led jets resumed air strikes after a brief halt in the four-week bombing campaign.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen since late March, when Riyadh assembled the coalition in support of Hadi.
Source: AFP