SANAA: UN humanitarian aid chief Stephen O’Brien warned on Monday in Yemen that the war-torn and impoverished country faces “serious risk of famine” unless international donors step up their response.

The under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, speaking in the southern city of Aden where he met President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, also urged both sides in Yemen’s two-year-old war to grant humanitarian access to the conflict zones.

“We now face a serious risk of famine if the international community doesn’t step up with funding and respond and the parties in the conflict continue to restrict humanitarian access,” said O’Brien.

He said that 19 million of Yemen’s 26-million population now needed humanitarian aid, and “seven million Yemenis don’t know where their next meal is coming from”.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017