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UN releases emergency funding for relief efforts in crisis-torn Yemen

Xinhua, June 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN humanitarian arm announced Thursday that it will provide a critical injection of emergency funding in order to accelerate relief efforts to war- trapped civilians in Yemen, where tussle among different fractions is brewing a humanitarian crisis.

According to an announcement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 25 million U.S. dollars will be released from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in order to support lifesaving projects including the provision of fuel, medicine, emergency supplies, clean water, sanitation services and nutrition programs to Yemenis in need.

"Innocent civilians in Yemen are paying a terrible price," said Stephen O'Brien, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, in a press release.

"They face daily airstrikes, shelling and fighting while medical supplies, fuel and food are running out, and basic services have collapsed."

In recent months, Yemen has descended into conflicts between several different groups vying for power. The main fight is between forces supporting former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and troops backing exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The humanitarian situation in Yemen has been progressively deteriorating by the day despite ongoing UN-backed efforts to help national stakeholders reach a political solution to the crisis.

According to a recent joint survey released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), six million people in Yemen are slipping towards severe hunger and now need emergency food and life-saving assistance, a sharp increase from the last quarter of 2014.

Meanwhile, the study added, 10 out of Yemen's 22 governorates are now classified as facing food insecurity at emergency level.

Millions more are highly vulnerable and could easily fall into emergency levels unless there is a dramatic improvement in the availability and access to food at prices that most people can afford.

The humanitarian stresses brought on by the conflict, however, have only compounded the already severe human toll of the fighting.

OCHA has noted that thousands of people in the country have been killed and injured by airstrikes and ground fighting in the last three months alone while over 1 million people have fled their homes.

"The parties to this conflict show an utter disregard for human life, repeatedly attacking civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, power stations and water installations," said the under-secretary-general. Endite