Doha: World Food Program’s representative in Yemen Richard Ragan hailed the great interest of the State of Qatar and its appreciated support for many needy countries in the world, including Yemen, to overcome the difficulties and challenges of food and its steadily high prices, especially at the present time.
He said that the country’s support and assistance to Yemen is essential and has a profound and important impact on making people’s lives better, especially in light of the war and the conflict that has been going on there for years.
In this context, he praised the agreement to support food security and nutrition for the World Food Programs response plan in Yemen, with a value of $90 million, which was signed by the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the World Food Program (WFP) last November, which, he said, is the most valuable in this field.
In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), Ragan noted that the State of Qatar ranks first among the Arab countries, and 24th globally in the Global Food Security Index for the year 2021. This affirms that the issue of food security is a priority for it, and that it sets national strategic plans, and makes sufficient efforts at all relevant levels to achieve this goal, according to well-thought-out food programs and policies.
He said that the existing partnership between the State of Qatar, represented by QFFD and WFP is important and vital. The two parties are working to develop it, including those that bring the program together with Qatari charities and organizations, expressing, in this regard, his deep thanks to the State of Qatar and the Qatari people in general for their generous support to their Yemeni brothers, which had a positive impact on the food situation in Yemen.
Ragan revealed that the WFP provides aid to 16 million Yemenis, or more than 50 percent of the Yemeni people, including internally displaced persons and a number of refugees from neighboring countries, noting that the current ceasefire in Yemen and the opening of the airport, made it easier for the program to move and reach the interior more, with flights to and from Yemen, in addition to the availability of fuel and the removal of checkpoints, accordingly, it contributed to providing more aid through 150 trucks to transport food to all Yemenis without exception, including 5 million beneficiaries in the south and 11 million in the north.
WFP’s representative in Yemen Richard Ragan revealed that the program needs USD 200 million per month to provide food aid in Yemen, at a time when USD 450 million were allocated for the next 6 months. This amount, he said, covers the food needs of Yemenis for about two months only, noting that the food situation in Yemen is currently bad and that the country is on the verge of famine.
He added that the food situation in the whole world is not satisfactory, and the crisis of the war in Ukraine has exacerbated these conditions and made them worse, which led to an increase in prices, bringing about 44 million people in 38 countries around the world to the poverty line.
He stated that the crisis of high food prices led to an increase in the financing of the program’s projects in the world by rates ranging between 30 to 40 percent, equivalent to about $71 million per month, pointing out in this regard that the program needs more than one million tons of grain annually for Yemen, at a rate of about 100,000 tons per month. He said 30 percent of it comes from Ukraine.
He concluded by affirming that the first challenge of the WFP in the field of food in Yemen is to end conflicts and achieve peace, calling, in a related context, on the international community to intensify its assistance to Yemen to avoid aggravating the food and humanitarian conditions in this country.
