UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – With nearly half the civilian population acutely hungry, the Yemen bombing campaign is making an incredibly dire situation even worse, UN humanitarians said.
“After over a decade of crisis and conflict, more than 19 million people still need essential assistance, including food, nutrition, healthcare, shelter and clean water,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, in a press release earlier this week.
OCHA said that, airstrikes over the last month, which reportedly killed four people and injured more than two dozens, made a fragile environment even more complex.
“These strikes are also reported to have serious impacts on communities,” the office said. “Last week, a health facility in the governorate of Hajjah, in the north-west of the country, was destroyed.”
OCHA said that, humanitarians are reaching vulnerable communities nationwide, even in the current environment. So far this year, the partners have initiated two cycles of food assistance distributions, targeting almost six million people.
The partners supported more than 500 health facilities, providing life-saving primary and secondary health services to some 225,000 people.
OCHA said that, for communities in need, humanitarian aid is a matter of life and death. Last year, humanitarian partners reached eight million of Yemen’s most vulnerable people, with food, clean water, medicine and other life-saving aid.
“While needs are increasing, funding is shrinking,” OCHA said. “This year’s humanitarian appeal for Yemen requires 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, is less than seven percent funded, with just 173 million dollars received.”– NNN-XINHUA
