WFP: Aid workers are in a "race against time" to prevent famine in Yemen‏

Aid workers are in a "race against time" to prevent famine threatening millions of people in Yemen, executive director of the World Food Programme, Ertharin Cousin said

"We have about three months of food stored inside the country today," Cousin told reporters in Amman after a three-day visit to the wartorn country , adding "We do not have enough food to support the scale-up that is required to ensure that we can avoid a famine

"It is a race against time, and if we do not scale up assistance to reach those who are severely food insecure, we will see famine-like conditions in some of the worst-hit and inaccessible areas which means that people will die," Cousin said

WFP was able to reach a record 4.9 million needy people in Yemen last month. But Cousin said inadequate funding meant it was forced to reduce food rations to stretch assistance to more people

"What we have been doing is taking a limited amounts of food that we have in the country, and spreading it as far as possible, which means that we have been giving 35 percent rations on most months, we need to get to 100 percent rations," she added