World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley was in Yemen this week. In a Feb. 23 interview to AP, from Sana’a, he warned, “We’re feeding 13 million people out of a nation of 30 million people, and we are running out of money.” He put this in the context that 285 million people around the world face the threat of starvation, saying, “So, what am I going to do for the children in Yemen? Steal it from the children in Ethiopia, or Afghanistan, or Nigeria or in Syria? That’s not right.” The film “Hunger Ward” that Beasley had praised was about child starvation in Yemen, and was filmed at a children’s hospital in Yemen.
For lack of resources, the WFP has already cut daily food rations by half for 9 million people in Yemen. “We may be cutting those down to zero. What do you think will happen? People will die. It will be catastrophic.”
Beasley called for an extra $9 billion to meet the increasing demand for food aid worldwide. “The $430 trillion worth of wealth in the world today, there should not be a single child dying anywhere on Earth.”
He appealed for the war to end. “In Yemen, these children and these families have paid the price long enough for the war they’re in. It is time for the war to end. Right now, what I see is children and families begging for food.”
