With the world preoccupied with Ukraine, the United Nations failed this week to raise sufficient funds from international donors to help Yemen cover its needs to avoid a major disaster in the impoverished country mired in war.
Relief organizations warn that the lack of funding, one of the reasons for which is the absence of major funders in the wealthy Gulf, will have the consequences of exacerbating the effects of the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of people, destroyed the economy and caused the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, according to AFP.
At the opening of a donors’ conference, on Wednesday, the head of the Swiss humanitarian aid agency, Manuel Bessler, warned that “Ukraine is keeping us busy (…) but it is necessary not to forget any other crisis”, especially Yemen.
But at the conclusion of the meeting, the United Nations could not help but express its frustration after it raised $1.3 billion, out of the $4.27 billion that Yemen urgently needs.
This “means that the needs of (the Yemenis) will not be met,” the representative of the United Nations Development Program in Yemen, Oke Lutsma, told AFP, warning, “This is the darkest situation we have known so far for the country.”
For several months now, the United Nations has been expressing concern about the consequences of underfunding humanitarian aid, while the conflict on the ground has seen regular renewed violence between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.
As more and more people face the threat of starvation, Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, is seeing another war threatening its food security, with Ukraine providing nearly a third of its wheat supply.
According to the United Nations World Food Program, the conflict in Ukraine may drive up food prices in the country.
‘We were expecting more’
WFP has already had to cut food rations for eight million Yemenis this year.
In addition, according to UN agencies, up to 19 million people out of 30 million may need food assistance during the second half of 2022.
Meeting their food needs requires 181.4 million euros per month in “one of the most important programs in the history of the World Food Programme,” says WFP’s spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, Abeer Atifa.
“We were expecting more, especially from donors in the” Gulf region, she said.
While Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the biggest donors in 2021, they made no promises this time.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi regularly announce sending aid to the country through their own networks of local humanitarian agencies.
On Wednesday, they stressed the need to put an end to the “terrorist” actions of the Houthis, while the Emirati representative stressed that the rebels “obstruct and divert humanitarian aid.”
The two countries’ reluctance to announce aid within the conference came at a time when their relations with the United States are going through a phase of tension, as the administration of President Joe Biden refuses to classify the Houthis as a terrorist organization, despite their repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“It appears that the two allies now want to control their funding (of humanitarian aid) for Yemen, rather than assigning it to the United Nations,” said Elizabeth Kendall, a researcher at Oxford University.
She points out that the areas most affected by the humanitarian crisis are in the hands of the Houthis and at the heart of the ongoing battles.
Saudi Arabia, like the UAE, is reluctant to see aid go to areas where it supports government forces in their battles.
According to Abdulghani Al-Iryani, a researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, the wealthy Gulf states seek to provide aid “in a way that reaps greater political benefits, through their own organizations.”
On Thursday, the Gulf Cooperation Council said it was seeking to host talks between the Yemeni warring parties in Saudi Arabia, despite the Houthi rebels’ refusal to hold talks in “enemy countries”.