World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Wednesday voiced concern about nine million people in the Horn of Africa who urgently need humanitarian aid, Bloomberg reports.

According to Sheeran, low funding has led the WFP to scale back operations in Somalia and Ethiopia, at a time when it should be increased (McGregor, 6/29). “The World Food Programme is aiming to feed more than 6 million of the most vulnerable, but resources are thin and at the very moment that we should be ramping up operations, we have been scaling back some programmes in Ethiopia and Somalia,” Sheeran said in a statement, the U.N. News Centre writes. “It is essential that we move quickly to break the destructive cycle of drought and hunger that forces farmers to sell their means of production as part of their survival strategy,” she added (6/29).