UN Asks for $1.8bln Funding for Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) appealed Friday for a $1.8-billion funding for Yemen in 2016, amid Saudi Arabia’s nonstop aggression against the impoverished country.
The funding is needed for the provision of critical and life-saving assistance to about 13.6 million people affected by the Saudi campaign, which started on March 26, 2015.
The office said four out of five Yemenis need humanitarian assistance, and increased attacks on Yemen’s infrastructure have deprived millions of families of their livelihoods.
In January, the OCHA delivered food rations for 2.6 million people and did water deliveries to over 234,000 Yemenis.
Donors, the office stated, gave USD 892 million in 2015, barely half of the USD 1.6 billion the OCHA had requested, Press TV reported.
Jamie McGoldrick, the OCHA coordinator for Yemen, said Friday the lack of attention that has been given to the condition in Yemen is a matter of concern.
“Civilians are the losers,” the UN official said, adding that the situation in Yemen is being “overlooked” as the war on Syria has been at the center of attention.
The Saudi strikes on Yemen were launched in an attempt to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
Nearly 8,280 people, among them over 2,235 children, have been killed in the Saudi airstrikes.
