UN Warns Humanitarian Programs in Yemen Shutting Down

Arab World

August 20th, 9:12am

Aden - Mohammed Nasser

Yemeni students sit for an exam at a school in Sanaa. EPA

The United Nations has warned that most UN major humanitarian programs in Yemen would shut down, including at least 70 percent of schools and 50 percent of water and sanitation services, if funding is not urgently received in the next weeks. Already, 12 of the UN’s 38 major programs are shut or drastically reduced. Between August and September, 20 programs face further reductions or closure, the UN said in a statement on Wednesday. The warning comes as violations committed by Houth militias against Yemenis, including the delivery of humanitarian aid, are on the rise. “If funding is not urgently received in the next weeks, 50 percent of water and sanitation services will be cut, medicines and essential supplies for 189 hospitals and 2,500 primary healthcare clinics, representing half of the health facilities in the country, will halt,” the Office of the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen said. “Thousands of children who are suffering from both malnutrition and disease will probably die and at least 70 percent of schools will likely be shut or only barely able to function when the new school year starts in coming weeks. Tens of thousands of displaced people who have nowhere else to go will be forced to live in inhumane conditions,” it said in a statement. “World Humanitarian Day should be a day of celebration,” said Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. “This year in Yemen, it’s the opposite.” “We have no choice,” the statement quoted Grande as saying. “We have a moral obligation to warn the world that millions of Yemenis will suffer and could die because we don’t have the funding we need to keep going.” Humanitarians in Yemen have saved millions of lives. Since the end of 2018, aid agencies have managed one of the fastest and largest scale-ups of assistance in recent history reaching an unprecedented 14 million people every month with life-saving assistance. “This is an operation with real impact,” said Grande. “Humanitarians have prevented large-scale famine, rolled back the worst cholera epidemic in modern history, and provided help to millions of displaced people.” “No one can say we haven’t made a difference,” she said in an indirect response to critics. “Yemenis have survived this terrible war because of what humanitarians have done and continue to do every single day.” She lamented that the impact of under-funding is “dramatic.” “In April, food rations for more than 8 million people in northern Yemen were halved and humanitarian agencies were forced to stop reproductive health services in 140 facilities.” “Health services were cut or reduced in a further 275 specialized centers for treating people with cholera and other infectious diseases. Allowances to nearly 10,000 front-line health workers were stopped and the supplies needed to treat trauma patients, who will almost certainly die without immediate treatment, were halted.” The statement reiterated that Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with nearly 80 percent of the population requiring some form of humanitarian aid and protection. It said that at the High-Level Pledging Event in Riyadh held in June, donors pledged only $1.35 billion of the $2.41 billion needed to cover essential humanitarian activities until the year end, leaving a gap of more than $1 billion. The Houthi intransigence has compelled many donors, such as the United States, to reconsider humanitarian assistance to militia-run areas.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2459126/un-warns-humanitarian-programs-yemen-shutting-down