UN body plans to deliver aid to 14M Yemenis per month

The UN World Food Program (WFP) is planning to reach 14 million people per month in Yemen to prevent the largest hunger crisis in the world, the body said on Friday.

In a news conference in Geneva, Herve Verhoosel, spokesperson of the WFP said the agency delivers humanitarian aid to 8 million people every month in Yemen.

Commenting on the hunger crisis in the country, she said the number of people who faced emergency levels of food insecurity and were close to famine "could rise to 12 or even 14 million people".

Also, highlighting the importance of the city and the port of Al-Hudaydah to access Yemen, Verhoosel said: "The port needs to stay open. For the future, we have to reach many more millions of people, we will need more access."

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a devastating air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

In recent months, the fighting has been largely concentrated in Al-Hudaydah, where the two sides continue to fight over a strategic seaport located between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Ongoing violence in Yemen has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as one of "the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times".