A government minister announced on Thursday that a Yemeni delegation will travel to India the next week in an effort to obtain wheat for the war-torn nation, where crucial food stocks are running low.
The group would aim to finalize a deal to import wheat from India, Yemen’s Saudi-backed government’s minister of trade and industry Mohammed al Ashwal told media.
He predicted that Yemen’s current strategic food stockpiles would last through the end of August.
India prohibited wheat exports in May as domestic prices rose and production decreased. Since then, it has granted exclusions to specific nations.
The implementation of the agreement with the Indian government about the lifting of the wheat export ban to Yemen has advanced significantly, according to Ashwal.
If a contract was signed, it was not immediately apparent how much wheat Yemen was requesting from India or when it could be delivered.
India’s export embargo and the disruption of Russian and Ukrainian exports brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine run the risk of escalating Yemen’s famine problem and accelerating the country’s food price inflation, which has doubled in some regions over the past two years.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Yemen’s seven-year conflict between the Houthi movement, which is allied with Iran, and a Saudi-led coalition, and millions of people are experiencing conditions that are dangerously close to famine.
Humanitarian help has mostly collapsed along with the economy and basic services, and several relief organizations have been forced to reduce or stop providing food, health care, and other supplies.
