The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Deputy Spokesperson Jens Laerke emphasized here today the significance of donors' honoring their pledges to provide Yemen with (financial) support, as soon as possible, in order to alleviate the suffering of millions of Yemenis, due to displacement, malnutrition and outbreak of diseases, especially the spread of novel Coronavirus. During a press conference, he pointed out that provided the requested funds are collected, about 200 agencies, concertedly working through a joint strategy, would manage to deliver foods and medical care to around 3.6 million displaced and provide vulnerable communities with other vital amenities, across the country. He also warned that lack of required funds will decrease food complementary to 1.7 children and pregnant, a fact that may lead to unavoidable deaths. Mobile teams and malnutrition treatment centers may be squeezed to downsize their services or even terminate them, including drinking water and sewerage service, in the main cities, in Yemen, exposing millions of children to contracting water-borne diseases such as Cholera. On the other hand, World Food Program (WFP) Senior Communications Consultant and Senior Spokesperson Elizabeth Byrs reaffirmed, during the conference, that the world community has provided Yemen with unprecedented levels of support, during the past 5-year. However, WFP needs $200 million per month to fund its programs there, and it was shouldering its responsibilities, as much as possible, in order not to let down any child or mother, drawing attention that COVID-19, remarkably, poses threat to Yemeni children. For its part, Shabia Mantoo, Global Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) said that the commission needs $89.4 to keep functioning currently administered live-saving aid programs, stressing that without securing such funds, the commission may decrease the programs, badly affecting almost one million refugees and displaced, in Yemen.
