WFP Yemen Country Brief, December 2018
In Numbers
106,224 mt of food assistance distributed to 7.2 million Yemenis
US$ 14.7 m commodity voucher transfers made to 1.8 million Yemenis US$ 594.6 m six months (February 2019-July 2019) net funding requirement
7.9 m people assisted in December 2018
Operational Updates
• In December, WFP provided food assistance for some 7.9 million people in 19 Yemeni governorates, 84 percent of the monthly target of 10 million people. To respond to the increased levels of food insecurity caused by the ongoing crisis and exacerbated by the economic situation and the increase in food prices,
WFP is planning to scale up its assistance to reach 12 million people in January 2019, whereby 10 million severely food insecure people will receive in-kind food rations and 2 million will receive commodity vouchers.
• The implementation of the WFP Yemen 2019-2020 Interim Country Strategic Plan (ICSP) will start on 01 January 2019.
• On 13 December, the last day of the first intra-Yemeni UN-sponsored peace talks on Yemen, the parties to the conflict reached an agreement on the following: a ceasefire in Hudaydah governorate, including the three ports of Hudaydah, Saleef and Ras Issa; an executive mechanism on activating the prisoner exchange agreement and; a statement of understanding in Taiz. The ceasefire was implemented from 18 December and is politically holding.
Meanwhile, throughout December both parties to the conflict have traded accusations of violating the ceasefire with clashes reported in and around Hudaydah governorate.
• To support the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 2451 endorsing the Stockholm agreement, a monitoring team has been deployed to Hudaydah to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire. Furthermore, as part of the agreement, the United Nations will chair the Redeployment Coordination Committee to facilitate the mutual redeployment of forces where the management of the ports will be handed over to the Yemen Red Sea Port Corporation, with the first stages of redeployment reportedly taking place on 29 December. The UN will provide technical assistance and oversight for the port management, of which WFP will have a supporting role. WFP is waiting for visa issuance by authorities in Sana’a to deploy an initial assessment team to Hudaydah in January, with the aim to inform the scope of its role in the Red Sea Ports. Hajja received cash transfers for the December cycle, benefitting a total of 6,300 beneficiaries. Through WFP’s Food for Assets livelihoods initiative, 4,000 people in Aden, Hajja and Sana’a participated in rehabilitation activities, benefitting a total of 28,000 beneficiaries.
• In December, through the school meals programme, WFP provided enough fortified date bars for 433,774 children attending schools in 10 governorates in northern Yemen, and enough high-energy biscuits (HEBs) for 56,670 schoolchildren in three governorates in southern Yemen.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-yemen-country-brief-december-2018
