EU increases humanitarian aid for Yemen crisis

The European Union (EU) is releasing an additional 15 million euros ( about 16.48 million US dollars) of emergency aid to provide life-saving assistance in Yemen, the European Commission, EU's executive body, said in a statement on Monday.

The money will bring the EU's total humanitarian support to the country to 52 million euros for 2015.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen continues to worsen due to the ongoing armed conflict over the last nine months. The country has been classified by the United Nations as a Level 3 emergency - the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crisis.

"The ongoing conflict has caused a large number of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure including medical facilities. We are stepping up our support to help humanitarian agencies in the country provide life-saving assistance such as health care, water and sanitation, nutrition and food security," said EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides.

The extra funds announced on Monday come in addition to the 37 million euros of humanitarian aid already made available by the European Commission earlier in 2015 to respond to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Humanitarian organizations estimated that 21.2 million people (82 percent of the total population) are in need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen, 14.4 million people are suffering from food insecurity; 14.1 million are in need of health care and 19.3 million lack access to water and sanitation.

The statement said that local government institutions are no longer able to deliver basic services to people in need. Furthermore, the lack of fuel is hampering the processing and transportation of food, and the import of essential goods including food and medicine.

This transfer of emergency funds has been agreed by the European Parliament and is expected to be formally adopted by the member states this week, the statement said. Enditem