The head of the World Food Programme threatened Monday (June 17th) to suspend aid deliveries to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, charging that the humanitarian relief supplies were being "manipulated", AFP reported.
David Beasley, the UN agency's director general, said deliveries would be suspended towards the end of the week unless there was a change of attitude by Iran-backed Houthi (Ansarallah) militias.
"Our food assistance is being manipulated, and we are being blocked from fixing it," he told a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen.
"All we are asking is to let us do what we do everywhere else all over the world. Children are dying right now because of this," he added.
Beasley said manipulation of aid deliveries was also a problem in government-controlled areas, but co-operation there had been sufficient to get those impediments lifted.
Beasley warned the Houthis in early May that aid to their areas could be suspended if they did not put an end to the diversion of shipments.
