Currency Rout Pushes Embattled Yemen to Brink of Starvation
- Rial sell-off caused wheat prices to surge 40 percent in a day
- Worsening food crisis adds to suffering after two years of war
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Anwar Abdullah goes to work every day but he hasn’t been paid in five months. When prices for wheat, sugar and other staple foods spiked earlier this month, the Yemeni school teacher feared for his three children.
A civil war that flared into a regional conflict has devastated Yemen’s economy and pushed millions to the brink of starvation. The local currency’s depreciation and the bombing of ports and roads have disrupted the distribution of food imports on which the poorest Arab country depends. Two of every three of the nation’s 27 million citizens struggle to get enough food to survive, according to the United Nations.