The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reached families trapped in Yemen’s Durayhimi City with much-needed humanitarian assistance. This is only the second time in over a year that WFP has been able to reach the town which lies about 20 kms south of the port city of Hodeidah.

While most of Durayhimi City’s residents have fled, some 200 civilians remain and are now highly vulnerable as fighting rages around them. There are no functioning health facilities and the shops are bare. Finding enough to eat is a struggle. With each passing day, the war takes more of a toll on those who remain behind.

Last week, WFP and sister UN agencies distributed a three-month supply of food, as well as nutrition supplements, water, medicine, and hygiene kits.

“When we arrived in Durayhimi City, many people were angry that it had taken us so long to get to there and those cries quickly turned to pleas for help,” said WFP Yemen Deputy Country Director Ally-Raza Qureshi who led the mission. “I agree with them - it’s totally unacceptable that these civilians lack safe passage out and that the humanitarian community finds it so difficult to reach them with relief supplies.”

WFP calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure safe passage for civilians in and out of Durayhimi City. Families must be able to come and go freely so they can access medical care, reach markets and regain a semblance of normal life.

Over 20 million Yemenis are hungry and half of them are facing acute shortages of food – just one example of the human cost of Yemen’s war. WFP is providing 12 million of those people who are most in need with monthly food assistance. This is the agency’s largest humanitarian operation in the world. WFP’s ability to alleviate hunger depends on safe, consistent access to its food stocks and to the people it serves.