WFP Threatens To Cut Off Food Aid To Yemen Amid Ongoing Evidence Houthis Are Stealing It

The Head of the UN Food Agency on Monday accused Yemen's Houthi rebels of diverting food from the war-torn country's hungriest people and threatened to suspend food aid later this week unless they immediately implement registration and monitoring agreements

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Jun, 2019) The Head of the UN Food Agency on Monday accused Yemen's Houthi rebels of diverting food from the war-torn country's hungriest people and threatened to suspend food aid later this week unless they immediately implement registration and monitoring agreements.

David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, WFP, told the UN Security Council that the agency in late 2018 uncovered "serious evidence that food was being diverted and going to the wrong people" in the capital of Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled areas.

"Today, I’m sad to say, the World Food Programme is being prevented from feeding the hungriest people in Yemen. Food assistance provided by the United Nations is being diverted in areas controlled by Ansar Allah at the expense of children, woman and men.

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He said WFP has insisted on and the Houthis finally agreed to registration and biometric identification of beneficiaries and monitoring in December and January, but the agency has faced roadblocks ever since in implementing the agreements.

One of the Houthis' leaders said the World Food Programme is sending expired food aid to Yemen and demanded cash instead. Beasley said he wrote to Houthi authorities again asking for action, not words.

"If we do not receive these assurances, then we will begin a phased suspension of food assistance, most likely toward the end of this week," he added.