UAE will continue to help Yemenis

Dubai: Officials with Emirates Red Crescent say they are moving to expand their humanitarian aid mission to help victims caught in conflict-ridden Yemen.

It’s estimated that around 14.7 million Yemenis now depend on humanitarian aid as a Saudi Arabia-led Arab coalition — including UAE troops — fights Al Houthi rebels to restore the legitimate government of Yemen.

Sixty-nine UAE soldiers have been killed since the start of Operation Restoring Hope.

“Our campaign in Yemen will continue and we are going to expand our activities across Yemen,” said Dr Mohammad Atiqi Al Falahi, secretary-general of Emirates Red Crescent. “We are continuing to complete our campaign and mission to ship food, water, medicine and other humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people. We are also working on some long-term responses such as hospitals and schools for them.”

Dr Al Falahi said his organisation is deeply committed to following through on its mission to bring relief supplies to Yemeni families caught in the crossfire.

“Despite the dangers and security issues, the Emirates Red Crescent campaign will continue and it will not stop until the end of our mission,” Dr Al Falahi said.

The Emirates Red Crescent, he said, is distributing 4,330 food and relief parcels to Yemini households on a daily basis. It has also provided food and relief material to 57,000 households for approximately 399,000 people since Aden was liberated.

Nine ships loaded with 18,322 tonnes of aid were sent to Aden Port as well as 50 trucks as part of a massive relief programme to assist the Yemenis in Aden and other neighbouring governorates affected by the crisis.

The humanitarian crisis extends to the lack of water available to the Yemeni people. Around 13 million Yemenis, about 50 per cent of the population, struggle to find clean water on a daily basis, according to the press reports.

A small portion of Yemeni families have access to state-run water companies which only supply major cities. In Yemen, 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas and so have close to no access to clean water. The capital Sana’a sees some 40 per cent of the houses connected to the water supply, which will provide them with water perhaps twice a week.

The combination of lack of water supply and old pipe work network has created a massive water crisis in Yemen.

Emirates Red Crescent has allocated Dh50 million for water projects in the country. Dr Al Falahi said, “it is our goal, obligation and commitment to help the Yemenis overcome the humanitarian crisis.”

In August, the UN’s humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien praised Emirates Red Crescent for its humanitarian efforts in Yemen, calling the organisation one of the UN’s most important humanitarian partners in the region

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The UAE has become the world’s largest aid donor to Yemen in 2015, providing around Dh744 million ($202 million) of aid between April and July — almost half of the aid pledged my other countries.