Abu Dhabi: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has shipped a humanitarian aid worth approximately Dh2.8 million ($768,000) from its Global Humanitarian Stockpile in the International Humanitarian City in Dubai, bound for Yemen’s capital Sana’a.
The assistance is expected to benefit 7,000 families affected by the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
“The presence of UNHCR’s Global Humanitarian Stockpile in Dubai facilitates the organisation’s ability to continuously provide timely humanitarian assistance for those most in need. The humanitarian situation in Yemen is very distressing, with millions of people struggling to secure their most basic needs,” said Toby Harward, UNHCR Head of Office in the United Arab Emirates.
“The UNHCR continues to work inside Yemen, and in neighbouring countries, to alleviate the suffering of people affected by the ongoing conflict, and provide them with humanitarian assistance,” Harward added.
The shipment of core relief items leaving Dubai includes blankets for 49,000 people, 14,000 sleeping mats, 7,000 kitchen sets, and 14,000 heavy duty buckets, and 14,000 plastic sheets.
The shipment departed Jebel Ali port on June 10, and will travel through Yemen’s Hodeida port, to finally reach Sana’a.
The ongoing conflict has taken an immeasurable toll on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. More than 2.7 million Yemenis are now internally displaced while over 170,000 people have fled from Yemen to countries in the region. The country’s basic services are also on the verge of collapsing. Millions of Yemenis lack access to basic health care services, and are food insecure, while over 80 per cent of the population require humanitarian assistance and protection.
Since the start of the year, the UNHCR has, through its Global Humanitarian Stockpile in Dubai, dispatched relief items for thousands of people in Yemen. In February, it delivered a shipment from Dubai worth over Dh6 million ($1,645,500), that included 42 containers of core relief items. Countrywide, in 2016 only, the UNHCR has assisted close to 35,000 internally displaced families with core relief items in all governorates in Yemen, including 3,000 families in the city of Taiz.
Dubai’s International Humanitarian City, under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is an initiative of the government of Dubai. The International Humanitarian City is home to UNHCR’s largest global emergency stockpile for aid items with stocks of blankets, tents, kitchen sets and other items that can cater to the needs of more than 350,000 people.
