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UN-backed appeal calls for nearly 1 bln USD to help people fleeing Yemen conflict

Xinhua, December 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) jointly made an appeal for 94 million U.S. dollars to provide protection and assistance over the next year to refugees, returnees and migrants fleeing the conflict in Yemen, a UN spokesman told reporters here Wednesday.

An estimated 80 percent of Yemen's population requires protection and assistance, including 2.3 million people who are internally displaced, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

Meanwhile, around 170,000 Yemenis, refugees and third-country nationals have fled to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and some Gulf countries, he said.

"The interagency appeal aims to give nine participating agencies and 48 partners the capacity to continue delivering food, shelter, water, sanitation, protection, emergency education and other assistance to people arriving in the Horn of Africa from Yemen," Haq said.

"It anticipates 164,000 arrivals by December 2016," he added.

Six months of unremitting war in Yemen have left at least 505 children dead and injured 702 others, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in early October, adding that more than 1.7 million children are at risk of malnutrition while 10 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Figures show that 537,000 children under five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition, more than tripling the pre-conflict number of 160,000.

Endemic food shortages together with reduced access to health facilities and sanitation have further been compounded by the lack of fuel, electricity, gas and water.

The ongoing crisis in conflict-stricken Yemen is reflection of a regional unrest in the Middle East, especially after the forces of fleeing President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized strategic southern city of Aden against Shiite Houthi fighters, reports said.

The Shiite Houthi group launched attacks on Aden city, which President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared as temporary capital after he fled weeks of house arrest by the Houthis in Sanaa.

On March 26, a Saudi-led coalition started airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action was to protect Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities it seized since September 2014. Enditem