Ramadan: Saudi, UAE donate $200m aid to Yemen

Ramadan: Saudi, UAE donate $200m aid to Yemen

Tuesday, April 9, 2019 6:03 am


“Sana’a risks becoming the first capital in the world to run out of a viable water supply as Yemen’s streams and natural aquifers run dry,” says The Guardian. By Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland – cropped version of Yemen, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates donated 200 million dollars in aid for use during the month of Ramadan, the UAE said on Monday.

The Saudis and Emiratis are working with humanitarian groups to distribute the aid within areas controlled by both sides in the four-year conflict, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem al-Hashimy, said in Abu Dhabi.

The aid is part of 500 million dollars joint food aid programmes announced in November.

The UAE plays a leading role in Yemen’s conflict as part of a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in 2015 against the Houthi movement to restore the internationally recognised government of President Mansour Hadi.

The UAE donated 5.41 billion donated between April 2015 and December 2018 to support emergency food aid, energy supply, and health services, according to ministry statistics.

Among international organisations, the biggest beneficiary was the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which received 287 million dollars in aid from the UAE.

During the month of Ramadan, which this year begins in early May, devout Muslims fast during daylight hours.

Yemen’s war has killed tens of thousands of people – some of them from coalition air strikes – and driven 10 million to the brink of famine.

The Arabian Peninsula country is also suffering its third major outbreak of cholera since the conflict began.

In December, the warring parties reached a deal at UN-led peace talks for a ceasefire and troop withdrawal from the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen’s lifeline for fuel and food.

The truce has largely held but the withdrawal has stalled due to mistrust among the parties, calling into question the UN goal of further talks to agree a framework for political negotiations to end the war.

Violence and displacement also continue in other parts of Yemen not subject to the ceasefire.

On Sunday the Houthi news outlet Masirah reported from the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa that 11 people, including five students, were killed in a coalition air strike on a school and nearby houses.

On Monday, the European Union’s humanitarian service reported an air strike on a “hangar” in Sanaa that damaged civilian houses and a neighbouring school.

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition denied reports that its forces had targeted residential areas in Sanaa.

UN Yemen Aid Coordinator, Lise Grande, called for efforts to pinpoint the circumstances “that led to this tragedy”.

“Incidents of this kind undermine any positive steps taken toward reaching a political resolution for Yemen and must stop immediately,” said Jan Egeland, Head of the Norwegian Refugee Council Aid organisation.

(Reuters/NAN)


Join The Conversation

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.