Millions of Yemenis face humanitarian crisis

Abu Dhabi: Yemen is facing a deteriorating humanitarian situation which could threaten the country’s stability, according to United Nations aid agencies. The ongoing conflicts in the north and south of the country, coupled by drought and high levels of poverty, have left more than half of the country’s 24 million people without access to basic services and dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Ten million people in the country do not have sufficient access to food, and more than six million people lack access to basic health care.

More than one million Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition, of whom 250,000 are severely affected with risk of death unless immediate assistance is provided, the Geneva-based United Nations Radio reported.

United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, says the lack of funding and insecurity are making it difficult for aid agencies to respond adequately to the situation in the country.

“The World Food Programme (WFP) today is facing a major problem of funding. They are lacking close to over $100 million (Dh367 million) and they have even reduced already the ration they are providing to the IDPs [internally displaced persons] and they will not be able to sustain that beyond September,” the UN official added.

Only 28 per cent of the $716 million requested to respond to the humanitarian situation in Yemen has been received.

The country is also host to tens of thousands of refugees and migrants who cross the Gulf of Aden in search of economic opportunities in the Gulf region, according to the Radio.