YemenOnline- July 14, 2008- The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, is set to donate $1.7 million worth of food to feed the poorest of Yemen. The aid package is comprised of 2,350 metric tons of wheat, beans, rice, and flour. USAID will use WFP humanitarian apparatus to deliver the food to the peripheral governorates and the remote villages.

As the nation reels with a food crisis that is not dissimilar to a famine, the international community has started to step up aid efforts in Yemen. The government has done little to cushion the population, one of the poorest in the world, from the global price hike.

Those who lived just above the international poverty line now cannot afford to feed their families. Nearly 30% of Yemen’s population is now living in “absolute poverty”, meaning that they cannot afford enough food to sustain themselves. Hunger, which was mostly prevalent in the countryside, now afflicts large numbers of the urban population, turning many of Yemen’s metropolises into slums.

The aid effort is going to be all inclusive; the program will try to reach the remote regions as well as all social classes. Refugees camps and Somali urban dwellers will also benefit. The donation follow UNICEF’s similar donation to feed mothers and children. Hopefully, this will start a trend of foreign assistance to those who are now in dire need.