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14 Million Yemenis in Urgent Need of Relief- McGoldrick | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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14 Million Yemenis in Urgent Need of Relief- McGoldrick


14 Million Yemenis in Urgent Need of Relief- McGoldrick

14 Million Yemenis in Urgent Need of Relief- McGoldrick

Amman- Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, called on the global community to provide supplementary support for the country’s humanitarian needs. During a Tuesday press conference, McGoldrick spoke to reporters about the 2016 humanitarian response mission for Yemen. He pointed out that an approximate 14 million people in Yemen are in urgent need of help due to the ongoing conflict, especially inside war-torn northern governorates and the Saada governorate. Mcgoldrick clarified that Yemen’s humanitarian mission is in need of a 1.8 billion dollar aid.

He added that the donor countries have so far provided only $892 million, 56 percent out of the $1.6 billion pledged fund, while the UN has been desperate for more financial support in order to assist those affected by the war. Several Yemeni cities are facing severe shortages of fundamental sustenance and medicine. The U.N. aims at reaching the largest number of people damaged by the war.

McGoldrick said that the U.N. mission in Yemen planned on helping save the lives and deliver aid to 3 million people, however, reached only 2.9 people. Over the upcoming months the U.N. hopes to expand their mission further reaching more people.

Based on U.N. resolution 1325, humanitarian response mission in Yemen must prioritize protection of Yemenis according to social category, he added.

75 percent of the fund appealed represents aid for critical cases that cannot be postponed. McGoldrick pointed out that a 21.2 million Yemenis are in frantic need of humanitarian relief, especially after the conflict demolished social fundamentals, economy, and cost millions of homes their source of income.

The U.N. Coordinator said that solution for Yemen is a political one, although, he expressed his pessimism on a nearing resolution.Several diverse factions embattled in the country stand in the way of political consensus.

On the possibility of funding a mine elimination program, McGoldrick mentioned cooperation with local companies for mine extraction and the hopes of a part of the appealed mission fund being dedicated to mine removal.

Speaking at the conference, Muhannad Hadi, the World Food Program regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, named what is needed for the humanitarian community to continue providing services to Yemen is both unconditional access and funds. He explained that over 7.6 million people are severely deprived of sustenance and 2 million people are facing acute malnutrition.

“We need to go every month to make sure people have their food needs,” Hadi told reporters, stressing that unconditional access to deliver food to people in Yemen is what the agency requests.

Yemen chargé d’affaires to Jordan, Abdullah Azazi, called on the international community to increase its humanitarian support to the people of Yemen, and noted that a registered 61 percent of the population needs health and food security.

Azizi explained that the situation in Yemen is difficult, and a directed plan on a comprehensive reconstruction of sectors is necessary. He requested that international organizations double their efforts in Yemen as to relief citizens of the suffering they bare.