SANA’A – The World Food Programme is expanding its food assistance to the total population of 50,617 internally displaced persons who have fled fighting in Abyan governorate and who are now residing with host families or in vacant schools in Aden. WFP was already providing assistance to 18,168 IDPs living in schools, but the agency will now include the whole displaced population in Aden in its food distribution.

“The recent unrest in Yemen has pushed thousands of people into the countryside,” said WFP-Yemen Country Director, Gian Carlo Cirri. “Many are being generously hosted by other families that have already been under stress and whose resources are diminishing. Our assistance will help not only those who have been displaced by the conflict; it will also relieve host families of their huge responsibility.”

The current IDP crisis began in June 2011, when fighting between government forces and alleged affiliates of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula erupted in Zinjibar, the capital of the southern governorate of Abyan. The violence has prompted a mass exodus of some 80,000 civilians, who have scattered across the governorates of Abyan, Aden and Lahj.

WFP is also looking in to the possibility of extending its assistance to the IDPs in Abyan. Food needs in Lahj are currently covered by the ICRC.

“Whereas previous displacements in Yemen’s south have tended to be relatively temporary, there are indications that the most recent displacement in around Abyan will be different,” said Mr. Cirri. “Unfortunately, we do not expect these people to go back home any time soon – at least not before calm and security is re-established.”

In response to the wider humanitarian crisis, WFP has launched an umbrella operation to assist more than two million Yemenis facing severe hardship and who are becoming more food insecure by the day. These include the IDPs in the south, as well as severely food insecure persons, malnourished children under the age of 5, and pregnant and lactating women in the most affected areas of Yemen.

For this operation, WFP has launched a donor appeal of US $48.1 million, which is currently less than 30% funded.

“With the ongoing crisis, we expect the need to increase,” said Mr. Cirri. “We will need at least US $26.7 million more.”

The latest contributions to WFP’s emergency Abyan IDP operation in Yemen have come from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Canada.

For 2011, WFP-Yemen has an operational budget of some US $97 million with which to provide food and nutrition assistance to over three million food insecure men, pregnant and lactating women, schoolgirls, refugees, IDPs and children under the age of five. Thus far, the agency has received generous contributions from Austria, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, the UN CERF, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.