UN: Yemen response plan only 26% funded, crisis looming
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Sanaa will be plunging into worse crises soon if response plans are not taken seriously.
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Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations
In a UN OCHA report, the deputy UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, reported that aid agencies have expressed concern that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen will be deteriorating sharply in the coming months due to the economic problems that were caused by the Saudi-led war on the country. A weaker currency has affected millions of Yemeni livelihoods, in addition to inflation as a result of the Ukraine war.
Yemen's 2022 humanitarian response plan is only 26% funded, forcing essential programs to reduce effectivity or to completely come to a close, endangering millions.
Haq said that the aid cuts will also undermine political progress in the future, especially after a lot of hard work was put into extending the armistice.
Furthermore, unrest and insecurity are also arising in some areas because of accumulated frustrations of the depreciation of the local currency, in addition to rising commodity prices, lack of services and jobs, and decreasing aid, among other serious dilemmas.
Haq urged all donors to ramp up their contributions to the Yemen response plan as soon as possible to avoid a deteriorating situation.
He also welcomed the Senior Officials Meeting on Yemen, which is taking place in Brussels, Belgium, today and tomorrow, co-hosted by Sweden and the European Commission. He stressed that the aforementioned meeting is an important opportunity for donors and agencies to strategize on major challenges facing the Yemen response, including lack of funding, access problems, and insecurity.
UN warns of worsening humanitarian situation in Yemen
While the United Nations warned of worsening humanitarian conditions in Yemen, it noted that the fragile two-month truce that came into effect in early April could contribute to changing the situation.
"The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a reality that we need to urgently address," David Gressly, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement released in May, adding that "over 23 million people -- or almost three-quarters of Yemen's population -- now need assistance... an increase of almost three million people from 2021."
Gressly urged donors to benefit from the UN-brokered truce that has come into effect on April 2, considering the truce as "a vital opportunity for aid agencies to scale up life-saving assistance and to reach more people in acute need quickly, including in areas where access was limited due to armed conflict and insecurity."
"For aid agencies to immediately step up efforts, we count on sufficient donor funding. Otherwise, the aid operation will collapse despite the positive momentum we are seeing in Yemen today," he warned.
Talking about the 2022 humanitarian response plan for Yemen, he said the UN needs around $4.3 "to reverse a steady deterioration of the humanitarian situation."
The plan targets 17.3 million people, he added, and nearly 13 million people "are already facing acute levels of need".
More than half of Yemen’s people face acute hunger, with half of the children under five being at risk of malnutrition.
