Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Service Agreements between King Salman Center, UN Organizations in Favor of Yemen | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55377621
Caption:

Riyadh- An official in King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) said that the center continues to provide emergency relief programs related to combat cholera epidemic in Yemen.

The official revealed signing of agreements to establish projects with the World Health Organization (WHO) and some UN organizations in Yemen on environmental sanitation.

Head of the cholera control team at KSRelief, Spokesman Dr. Samer al-Jutaili told Asharq Al-Awsat that the reports by the United Nations on the cholera epidemic that struck Yemen and killed 1,400 people in two months, showed signs of relative deceleration with a half-death rate and confirmed that the intervention of the King Salman Center was positive.

Jutaili said that a $8.2 million agreement was signed with WHO in addition to sending 550 tons of medicines that are enough for around 50,000 people.

Jutaili continued that the order of the crown prince came after the evaluation of KSRelief for the current needs of Yemen and the assessment of the center’s projects with its partners in the WHO, the Yemeni Ministry of Health and other institutions to combat cholera.

The KSRelief official stressed that the directives by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior to donate $66.7 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WHO to respond to the cholera outbreak in Yemen had a significant impact.

He said that concerned institutions received this news with great satisfaction as Saudi Arabia is considered the largest financier of relief projects through the King Salman Center, including cholera containment projects.

The agencies say that more than 1,300 people have died — one quarter of them children — and the death toll is expected to rise.

A cholera outbreak will probably have infected more than 300,000 people by September, the UN said.

Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection spread through contaminated food or water.

Although the disease is easily treatable, doing so in conflict-torn Yemen has proved particularly difficult.

UN reports indicate that almost 19 million people — more than two-thirds of Yemen’s total population — are in need of humanitarian assistance, and that 14.5 million people lack access to clean water and sanitation.