UN, aid partners appeal for $11.5 million help 650,000 flood victims in Yemen

United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners today called for $11.5 million to help some 650,000 victims of deadly floods in eastern Yemen to help with food, water and sanitation, health and shelter needs.

Torrential rains last month claimed at least 73 lives and destroyed or damaged over 3,200 homes, mainly made of bricks, while hundreds of farms were inundated and their crops washed away. Up to 25,000 people are in need of shelter, and several health facilities and over 150 schools have been damaged.

The Yemen Floods Response Plan, which will focus mainly on short-term humanitarian aid, will cover projects proposed by seven UN agencies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and two non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in concert with the Arabian peninsula nation’s Government.

The aid timeline will range from two to six months, and food assistance is expected to extend until the next harvest in April 2009.

UN bodies – including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – have set up a support hub in Sayun in Hadramout, one of the hardest-hit regions.

The new centre seeks to coordinate relief distribution and support local authorities to help survivors of the floods, which have claimed at least 73 lives in Hadramout and Al-Mahara governorates in Yemen’s east.

A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team is helping Yemen track incoming international assistance.

According to OCHA, the most affected areas in both Hadramout and Al-Mahara have passed the acute emergency phase, but there are still regions where needs have not been assessed, including the humanitarian situation of the 20,000 Bedouins living in the mountains.