Yemen, UN’s food agency ink deal to resume food aid

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and the United Nations (UN)’s food agency announce an agreement to resume the delivery of food aid, which has been suspended for the past six weeks in some areas of the Arab country.

The agreement was signed between the Ansarullah and the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Saturday.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, announced the deal in a tweet late on Saturday.

“Cash distribution will soon begin, God willing, in accordance with the [WFP] mechanism,” al-Houthi said.

As a common method of extending aid, cash is distributed among those in need so they can buy goods.

Herve Verhoosel, a spokesman for the WFP, said in a statement on Sunday that technical details would hopefully be agreed in the coming days.

According to Yemeni media, the agreement includes forming a biometric database of civilians in need of aid in order to guarantee “effective and efficient distribution” and to “benefit the most needy.” It also stipulates “total transparency” in the registration of beneficiaries and distribution of aid.

The aid ban resulted from a dispute over control of biometric data between the WFP and the Ansarullah in June. The UN agency had halted some aid in Sana’a, alleging that food was being diverted from vulnerable people. Yemen’s Ansarullah movement dismissed the allegation.

The decision affected about 850,000 people living in Sana’a, out of the more than 10 million people in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country who rely on food provided by the WFP.

SS