The UN rarely gets the full amount of aid needed for Yemen. The situation is particularly bad this year because of Corona: only 15 percent of the funds required have been achieved so far. A donor conference now helps relief workers breathe a little.
Riyadh / New York (dpa) - Shortly before the impending end for some of the most important UN aid programs in Yemen, donor states have pledged new donations for the civil war country.
Thirty states announced relief funds of $ 1.35 billion (€ 1.21 billion) on Tuesday - a good half of the amount needed by the end of the year. "We cannot be satisfied with what we have achieved today. We have to keep going," said UN emergency response coordinator Mark Lowcock at the end of the conference.
30 of the 41 most important aid programs in the impoverished Arab country were threatened with extinction in just a few weeks due to lack of money. "We have never had so little money for relief efforts in Yemen at this point in the year," said UN Secretary General António Guterres at the start of the video conference. The aid funds are also to be used for measures to contain the coronavirus in Yemen.
The civil war that has been going on for more than five years has plunged the country on the Arabian Peninsula into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Four out of five people need some form of humanitarian aid. This year alone, 110,000 people have cholera, plus malaria and dengue fever. The situation has worsened with the spread of the corona virus. The life of Yemenis is hanging by a thread, Guterres said.
The donor conference was organized by the United Nations with Saudi Arabia, which has been bombing targets in Yemen for five years with allies. Saudi Arabia wants to push back the Houthi rebels who are supported by Iran and who overran Yemen in 2014. Since the start of the bombing, more than 112,000 people have been killed, including 12,600 civilians in targeted attacks.
The largest donor country is Saudi Arabia, with $ 500 million in aid, followed by the United States ($ 225 million) and the United Kingdom ($ 197 million). Germany wants to provide aid of 125 million euros this year, as the State Minister at the Federal Foreign Office, Niels Annen, announced. The money is to be used, for example, for food, health and water supplies.
A similar donor conference in Geneva had raised $ 2.6 billion last year. Also because the countries are struggling with the effects of the corona virus, the willingness to donate was lower this year. According to the UN, only 15 percent of the funds needed for 2020 came before the donor conference.
According to official information, about 350 people have been infected with the corona virus in Yemen so far, and about 80 people died from it. However, the numbers are not very meaningful because hardly any tests are carried out and the rebels in the north do not publish any corona numbers at all. But there are indications that the corona mortality rate in Yemen is among the highest in the world, said Guterres.
OCHA on the Yemen donor conference