Sanaa: The UN humanitarian relief team in Yemen has called for about $43 billion in funding in its ‘Aid Action Plan’ for the year 2022. The UN says that despite the current pause in fighting, humanitarian relief efforts are necessary to prevent the situation from getting worse. Through this scheme, a target has been set to provide life-saving humanitarian aid and protection services to one crore 73 lakh people in the war-torn country.
For the first time in the past six years, a nationwide ceasefire is in force in the holy month of Ramadan and has been largely followed. A ceasefire between Saudi-led coalition forces supporting the internationally recognized government in Yemen, and Houthi fighters (Ansar Allah faction), began on April 2 as part of UN efforts and is expected to continue through May.
“The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a reality that needs to be addressed urgently,” said David Gressley, coordinator for the Coordination on Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen. “The statistics this year are astonishing. More than 23 million people – three-quarters of the Yemeni population – need help.
A senior UN official said that this represents an increase of about 3 million people compared to the year 2021. One crore 30 lakh people were already facing serious needs.
According to the UN agency, there has been an intensification of violent conflict this year, resulting in the experience of unspeakable suffering and disruption of public services, which has also increased humanitarian needs.
The country’s collapsing economy has worsened the situation for the poor community, and in the second half of 2022, one crore 90 lakh people are expected to need food assistance.
The UN agency said that an estimated one lakh 61 thousand people are facing extreme levels of hunger, and in the current circumstances, terrible suffering has arisen for children. 22 lakh are severely malnourished, out of which the condition of more than five lakh is said to be critical.
For the most vulnerable groups in the country, including women and children, limited access to essential services has made things worse.
David Gressley told that this is a moment of hope for Yemen. He said that a sufficient number of donors would be needed to increase the scope and level of relief efforts, otherwise there is a possibility of an impact on the relief services.
In a high-level aid funding program in Yemen in March this year, donors pledged $1 billion to 300 million, which is only 30 percent of the total amount needed for 2022. Since this conference, a pledge of $ 300 million has been made so far, but this gap still needs to be bridged, due to which only limited resources are available to relief agencies.
Since the start of the war in 2015, 4.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes, which is the fourth largest internal displacement crisis in the world.
