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UN: Time Running Out to Avert Yemen Famine

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - As the World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
   on Thursday for its work to eliminate hunger, its chief urged the world
   to prevent famine.

   For Yemen, time is running out.

   "My tragic duty today is to tell you: Famine is at humanity's
   doorstep.'¯For millions and millions of people on Earth," WFP Executive
   Director David Beasley said in his Nobel message.

   In Yemen, U.N. data on food insecurity released this month indicated
   that pockets of famine-like conditions were already present, and the
   number of Yemenis experiencing this level of food insecurity could
   nearly triple from 16,500 currently to 47,000 people by June.

   Another 3.6 million Yemenis are just one degree of hunger away from
   famine, and that could rise to 5 million by June.

   In total, the U.N. said, more than 16 million people --- over half of
   Yemen's population -- will be facing crisis levels of food insecurity
   by mid-2021.

   "Yemen is again being starved," U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock
   said Thursday at a meeting of donor countries.

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