Foreign
LACK of funds forces UN to closedown life-saving aid programmes in Yemen. In a statement on Wednesday, the UN quoted its Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, as saying money pledged by Member States to fund the programmes had “failed to materialise”.
“We are desperate for the funds that were promised. When money doesn’t come, people die,” Grande reportedly said.
At a fundraising event in February, the UN and its humanitarian partners were promised 2.6 billion dollars to meet urgent needs of more than 20 million Yemenis.
To date, less than half of this amount has been received, the statement quoted the coordinator as saying.
“Of the 34 major UN humanitarian programmes in Yemen, only three are funded for the entire year.
“Several have closed in recent weeks, and many large-scale projects designed to help destitute, hungry families have been unable to start.
“Another 22 life-saving programmes will close in the next two months unless funding is received.
“All of us are ashamed by the situation. It’s heart-breaking to look a family in the eye and say we have no money to help,” she said.
According to the statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was forced to suspend most of the country’s vaccination campaigns in May.
Procurement of medicines has been stopped and thousands of health workers are no longer receiving financial support.
Plans to construct 30 new nutrition centres have been shelved and 14 safe houses and four specialised mental health facilities for women have closed.
A treatment plant that purifies the water used to irrigate agricultural fields shut in June, the organisation added.
Grande warned that the closure would affect millions of people in Yemen, “who through no fault of their own are the victims of this conflict, and depend on us to survive.
She said food rations for 12 million people would be reduced and no fewer than 2.5 million malnourished children would be cut-off from essential services unless the funds were received in the coming weeks
Moreover, 19 million people stand the risk of losing access to health care, including one million women who depend on the UN for reproductive health.
Clean water programmes for five million people would be closed at the end of October, and tens of thousands of displaced families may find themselves homeless, Grande reportedly said.
Yemen, a Western Asian country, has been in the grip of a civil war since 2015 that has killed no fewer than 13,000 people including 5,000 civilians. (NAN)
– Aug. 22, 2019 @ 9:25 GMT |
Tags: Lack of funds forces closure of UN humanitarian programmes in Yemen
