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Conflicts

UN: Yemen will face aid cuts without new funds

August 22, 2019

The United Nations is facing having to cut 22 aid programs in the impoverished country. Only half of pledged donations for 2019 have been delivered so far.

Displaced Yemenis from Hodeida fill jerrycans with water at a make-shift camp in the northern district of Abs in the country's Hajjah province, June 2019
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Ahmed

The United Nations is "desperate" for funds in Yemen and will beforced to shutter 22 aid programswithin the next two months if a cash shortage is not resolved.

 "When money doesn't come, people die," Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said. "It's heartbreaking to look a family in the eye and say we have no money to help."

In February at a UN conference, countries pledged 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion US), but so far less than half that amount has been received.

Read more: Yemen Houthi rebels target Saudi oil field

Promises not delivered

Without a significant injection of funding in the coming weeks, food rations for 12 million people will be reduced, and 2.5 million malnourished children will be cut off from life-saving services, the UN said.

Out of 34 programs planned for 2019, only three have been funded for the entire year. The UN was forced to suspend most vaccination campaigns in May, and plans to construct 30 new nutrition centers have been put on hold.

Read more: Covering Yemen's 'forgotten' war

Of the UN's total €3.7 billion ($4.2 billion US) appeal for 2019, only 34% has been funded so far, compared to this time last year, when 65% of the appeal had been funded, including donations from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE,coalition partners in the war, have both pledged €676 million euros ($750 million) to its Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan for 2019, but so far the Saudis have contributed just €114 million ($127 million) and the UAE €144 million ($160 million).

The conflict, which has lasted more than four years, is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving millions on the brink of famine. The war in Yemen is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional rival, Iran.

mmc/se (AP, Reuters)

After 5 years of war, Yemenis on the brink

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