Un Begins Food Aid To Yemen's South

The U.N. World Food Programme began distributing food to around 340,000 people in southern Yemeni port city of Aden, the agency said Thursday.



"We are challenging the odds to reach tens of thousands of people who would go hungry without food assistance," Muhannad Hadi, regional director for the agency, said.



"We are working to overcome insecurity, checkpoints and many other hurdles in Yemen to reach desperate families unable to feed their children," he added.



Nearly 4,000 people have been killed in Yemen in a conflict that escalated in mid-March, according to the U.N.



The New York-based body says that around 21 million people, 80 percent of the population, are in need of assistance and among them 13 million are food insecure.



Humanitarian workers started to distribute two-month food rations -- including wheat flour, pulses and cooking oil -- in a number of areas in Aden that had not been reached since April because of the conflict, the food agency said.



On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition, which has conducted four months of airstrikes against Shia Houthi positions, called for a five-day "humanitarian cease-fire" to allow aid to flow into the impoverished country.



However, attacks by both sides have reportedly continued despite the truce.



U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday urged the parties to respect the cease-fire so that desperately needed humanitarian aid could reach civilians.



"Every day underscores the need for the political discussions to get back on track, and most immediately, for all the players involved, all those who control the weapons, to silence them so we can get the humanitarian aid to where it needs to be," he told reporters.



Yemen descended into chaos last September, when the Shia Houthi militant group overran the capital, Sanaa.



The move prompted a Saudi-led coalition to launch a military offensive in late March against the group. - New York