8 million Yemenis could lose humanitarian aid amid escalation of civil war: UN

Middle East, News February 17, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

The United Nations officials have warned that more than 8 million Yemenis are under a dire threat of losing humanitarian aid by March unless urgent funds are delivered.

According to the UN humanitarian office, Yemen received only $2.27 billion of its required $3.85 billion aid in 2021, which is one of the lowest funding since 2015. As a result, the UN food program was forced to reduce its rations for 8 million people.

The lack of rations also lead to the UN suspending many humanitarian aid flights for Yemen in 2021. The funding plan for 2022 has still not been released yet. UN would host a high-level pledging event in Sweden and Switzerland on March 16 after which it is expected that the UN would release its 2022 funding plans for Yemen.

The UN reports that “Yemen has lost $90 billion in economic output and more than 600,000 people have lost their jobs. Fifty-eight percent of the population is living in extreme poverty.”

According to the UN, “More than 14 million people are in acute need and more than three million people have been displaced from their homes since 2015.” Yemen is already one of the poorest countries in the Arab region, and due to the war and intensified conflicts, all public institutions including healthcare, education, food, and water resources have been disrupted, the agency added.

Yemen has been facing a war crisis since 2014, which started when the Houthi rebels incited insurgency all around the country taking control of most of the northern region including the capital Sanaa. This forced many Yemenis to flee towards the south of the country or Saudi Arabia.

*^{Houthi rebels, wearing an army uniform, ride on an armed truck to patrol the international airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 28, 2015. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)}*

In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a military alliance to take action against the uprising in Yemen and entered Yemen by March 2015. The Saudi-led military coalition was also backed by the U.S. and their motive was aimed at restoring the former Yemeni government and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi back into power.

The Houthi rebels have been carrying out several small-scale attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is also part of the Saudi-led military coalition. As a response to the attacks by the Rebels, the military coalition intensified the shelling and aerial attacks on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. More than 650 civilians died in these attacks since January 2022, tolling for one of the highest death rates in the last three months.

Around 80 percent of Yemen’s population relies completely upon humanitarian aid and protection, which accounts for one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. In the backdrop of recently intensified aerial attacks, it is expected that the situation is going to get worse.