LONDON: The UK government has admitted that it has not carried out an impact assessment for its 60 percent cut in aid to Yemen.

“We haven’t done an impact assessment,” Chris Bold, development director for Yemen at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), told the House of Commons international development committee.

The UN has categorized Yemen as having the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and British MPs are challenging the FCDO over what effect its cuts will have.

Ahead of the reduction in funding, James Cleverly, the UK’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said Yemen is enduring a “terrible” and “heartbreaking” situation.

“The risk of famine is significant,” he said, adding that Yemen is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases. “Infection numbers look as though they are doubling since the beginning of the year.”

The FCDO is focusing most of its reduced funding on feeding people in Yemen, Cleverly said, while also looking at diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

Addressing the committee, representatives from aid organizations gave assessments on the impact of the cuts. 

Save the Children’s Deputy Yemen Director Gillian Moyes said its cash-transfer program is expected to be closed by June.

The initiative, she added, had seen the number of families receiving acceptable food rise from 46 percent to 93 percent.

“We are having to assume the program will end, and we are preparing for that,” Moyes said. “Our conclusion is that these kinds of gains can be lost.”