Ahmed Shaaban (Aden, Cairo)
Experts on human rights issues have warned of the serious effects of reducing food aid provided by international and UN organizations in Yemen, and the impact on millions of Yemenis who suffer from acute malnutrition, and stressed that this decision will have bad repercussions on children, women and the sick.
And the World Food Program announced that more than 4 million Yemenis will receive less food aid at the end of September due to an acute funding crisis, which exacerbates one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, and the program said that the lack of funding will affect all its main programs, including general food assistance and school feeding. and resilience-building activities, and the program will only be able to assist 128,000 people out of the 2.4 million children, pregnant and lactating women, and girls initially targeted.
Fahmy Al-Zubairi, Director General of Human Rights in the capital, Sanaa, indicated that, according to estimates by United Nations organizations, more than 21 million Yemenis need relief aid in terms of food and health, because the living situation has deteriorated since the Houthi group took control of Sanaa and the seizure of state institutions and agencies. The suffering doubled after it closed and looted more than 3,000 charitable institutions and associations that were working to provide relief to the needy with food and medicine.
Al-Zubairi said in a statement to Al-Ittihad that the humanitarian and food needs in Yemen have increased during the past years of the coup as a result of the continuous displacement and forced displacement due to Houthi violations, the use of missiles and drones, and the planting of mines in various governorates.
And he warned that “reducing food aid will affect millions of people, and an urgent response has become an urgent necessity to save civilians, children and the sick, and international organizations must work with transparency and clarity and reduce administrative expenses.”
Al-Zubairi stressed the need to transfer the main centers of the international organizations from the Houthi-controlled areas to safer areas in the liberated governorates to get rid of the Houthi pressures that plunder a large part of the aid for the benefit of its fighters, and impose their employees in these organizations to receive high salaries, and this all affects the provision of aid. from donor countries.
The representative of the World Food Program in Yemen, Richard Ragan, said: “We face the difficult reality of making decisions that lead to taking food from the mouths of hungry people to feed other hungry people, while millions of Yemenis continue to depend on us for their survival. We are not dealing with this.” The decision was taken lightly, and we are fully aware of the suffering that will result from these cuts.”
For his part, Walid Al-Abara, head of the Yemen and Gulf Center for Studies, stressed that “the announcement of the World Food Program to reduce humanitarian and food aid has great repercussions for millions of Yemenis, especially in areas controlled by the Houthi group, especially since at the beginning of this year there was a big gap.” Between the volume of needs and the funds provided amounted to 75%, and the United Nations demanded 4.3 billion dollars to finance the humanitarian response plan in Yemen, yet it was unable to collect only 1.2 billion dollars, and therefore this amount covered only 27% of the needs.
Al-Abara said in a statement to Al-Ittihad that the Ukrainian crisis doubled the human tragedy in Yemen, and had several repercussions on many countries of the world, and led to an increase in the prices of food, fuel and oil, and therefore a lot of the money that was reduced from the aid part of it went to cover High costs with reduced support and funding directed to Yemen.
Al-Abara believes that the Yemeni government must make contacts with the international community to cover the cost of living until the end of the year 2023, to reach the humanitarian response plan in 2024 and raise the funding ceiling while creating real guarantees so that these sums go to the needy, reduce gaps, and prevent the Houthi group from reaching this. Aid and control it, as happened in the past years.
The World Food Program stated that it needs $1.05 billion in financing during the next six months, and has so far been able to secure only 28% of these funds. Last May, the United Nations Central Fund allocated $18 million to meet the urgent needs of those affected by the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, preventing famine and addressing food insecurity.
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