UNITED NATIONS: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that the food security and nutrition situation in Yemen will turn into a humanitarian disaster unless urgent funding is made accessible.

The world body stressed the need for delivering timely aid in the April/May cereal and vegetable planting season and the summer fishing season and vaccinating livestock before winter.

In a report released earlier this week, the FAO reported that around 14.4 million people — over half of Yemen’s population — urgently needed food security and livelihood assistance.

The volume of food required in Yemen was far greater than humanitarian actors can provide, the world body observed.

The FAO said the factors negatively affecting food security included a reported desert locust outbreak, which threatens the livelihood of more than 100,000 farmers, beekeepers and herders in five governorates, and the April flooding, which put 49,000 people in need of urgent assistance.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2016