A woman holds her malnourished daughter at a malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen.  (Photo: Reuters)

Sanaa, November 14 (RHC)-- A senior Yemeni official has lashed out at the World Food Program (WFP) for sending expired food and medicine to the crisis-stricken Arab country.

The director of the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Hudaydah Province said that authorities had examined more than 326 containers of humanitarian aid and discovered that the products were unhealthy and not suitable for human consumption as they had expired.

Jaber al-Razhi said the supplies included cooking oil, medicines for chronic diseases, food supplements for children, green peas and biscuits.  He added that competent authorities at Hudaydah port will deal with all those who try to put the lives of Yemeni people at risk.

“Despite appeals to the World Food Program not to import medicines and foodstuff that are already expired or near expiry, the organization continues to do so and distributes them among disadvantaged and needy people in the mistaken belief that such a practice will not catch the eyes of inspectors and relevant authorities,” Razhi pointed out.

He noted that Yemeni people were initially optimistic about the Stockholm agreement, which stressed in its entirety the need for facilitating the arrival of basic materials and humanitarian aid to Yemen’s western port of Hudaydah in a way that would meet the needs of the Yemeni nation, but their hopes now seem to have vanished into thin air.