Yemen crisis

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today. 

Donors have given the equivalent of 25 US cents per day for each of the 24.3 million people in need in Yemen, about half the amount given last year, Oxfam warned today.

The dramatic cut comes despite COVID-19 heaping further challenges on a country already suffering the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Evidence is mounting that a second wave of Covid-19 is already underway in Yemen, Oxfam warned today, with a 22-fold increase in recorded cases in recent weeks. It comes at a time when it is feared renewed fighting will force hundreds of thousands of people to flee to safety.

In response to the Virtual High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Situation in Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen said:  “Donors’ pledges to Yemen fall woefully short of what is desperately needed. Torn apart by six years of brutal conflict, with two thirds of the population reliant on food aid to survive, and thousands facing famine, Yemen desperately needs a ramping up not a reduction in aid." 
 

Commenting on the 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview for Yemen Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen, said: “The number of Yemenis in need is truly overwhelming, but we must remember that behind each of these statistics, there is a story of individual human suffering. 

In response to US Secretary of State Pompeo’s decision to designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Oxfam America’s Humanitarian Policy Lead Scott Paul said: “Secretary Pompeo’s decision to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization is a counter-productive and dangerous policy that will put innocent lives at risk. This designation will not help to resolve the conflict or provide justice for the violations and abuses committed during the war; it will only compound the crisis for millions of Yemenis fighting for their survival.

Other members of the G20 have exported more than US$17bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since it became involved in the conflict in Yemen in 2015 but have given only a third of that amount in aid to people caught in the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, Oxfam said today.

The threat of “COVID famines” and widespread extreme hunger are setting off every alarm bell within the international community, but so far sluggish funding of the UN's appeal is hampering humanitarian agencies’ efforts to deliver urgent assistance to people in need.

Six months ago UN Secretary General called in March for a global ceasefire tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now sleepwalking towards a seventh year of war, and the people of Yemen can only surmise that the world has forgotten them.

Medical and water infrastructure in Yemen has been hit during air raids almost 200 times since the conflict escalated more than five years ago, as the country continues to battle its outbreak of COVID-19.