SYDNEY, Australia (CU)_The head of the United Nations says Yemen is staring at a “death sentence” after a donor conference yielded less than half the funds needed to prevent a devastating famine. The UN had appealed for US$3.85 billion (AUD 4.96 billion) to pay for urgently needed aid, but just US$1.7 billion (AUD2.2 billion) was offered at a virtual pledging conference. Australia did not pledge any money for the second year in a row, after having supported the appeal with US$7.19 million (AUD9.25 billion) in 2019, official records show.
“Millions of Yemeni children, women and men desperately need aid to live. Cutting aid is a death sentence,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. Referring to the outcome as “disappointing”, Secretary General Guterres said that the pledges were less than what the UN received in 2020. He also mentioned that the donations were affected by the outbreak of the Coronavirus and is about 1 billion dollars short of what was offered in 2019.
“The best that can be said about today is that it represents a down payment. I thank those who did pledge generously, and I ask others to consider again what they can do to help stave off the worst famine the world has seen in decades,” Mr Guterres said in a statement. The conference had participation of more than 100 governments and donors and was co-hosted by Switzerland and Sweden.
Some of the headline pledges on Monday, including US$191 million from the United States and Saudi Arabia’s US$430 million, were smaller than last year’s donations. However, Germany offered US$244.8 million, compared to US$138 million last year.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen are still pressing to seize the government’s last northern stronghold. Many programmes in the country were subject to closure last year due to the drastic reduction in humanitarian budgets which includes health services and food distribution and it just keeps piling up and increasing the hardship. Yemen is a country where in fact approximately two thirds of its population is dependent on some sort of aid for survival.
As per the latest data by the UN, it is envisaged that more than 16 million Yemenis, which is about half the population of 29 million people will encounter hunger this year. Almost 50, 000 persons are starving to death in famine-struck conditions. The world body has warned that 400,000 Yemeni children under the age of five could die from acute malnutrition.
“The money that we received today is not enough to stop the famine and we will need more,” said Mark Lowcock, the UN’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. Save the Children and many other Humanitarian groups also reacted with frustration and dissatisfaction indicating that the world is not focusing on Yemen.
“This means continued massive cuts to emergency food, water, shelter and medical support. The shortfall in humanitarian aid will be measured in lives lost,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“I told governments at the conference that I have just seen children who are already dying of starvation in Yemen,” he said in a statement. “It is in their power to prevent full-scale famine, or forever have this stain on their consciences. So far, they have failed to act.”
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam also hit out at the pledges, saying they were an attempt by countries involved in the conflict to whitewash themselves. “The conference… does not help Yemen as much as it helps the aggressor nations by giving them the opportunity to cleanse their record,” he tweeted.
The conference comes as the US pushes to revive peace efforts. Support to the Saudi-led military coalition has been frozen by the Biden Administration. A black listing of the Houthi which was enforced by former President Trump a month prior to him leaving the White house was reversed by President Biden. This they say could have severe effects on aid efforts. Operations against Saudi Arabia have been increased by the Houthi fighters as coalition air strikes pummeled rebel held positions in the Northern part of Yemen as the insurgents are making every effort to seize Yemen’s last northern stronghold of Marib.
