Yemen and UN launch urgent appeal for aid funding following clashes in north

The United Nations, the Yemeni Government and several humanitarian organizations have launched an urgent appeal for $23.5 million to provide food and shelter to an estimated 150,000 people who have been displaced by recent fighting in the north.

“The additional resources requested now will help get desperately needed supplies to displaced people and those supporting them,” the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, told a news conference in Geneva today.

Mr. Holmes said the situation had deteriorated very sharply in the last few weeks, and that many people were being displaced more than once by fighting between Yemeni Government forces and armed groups. While some were staying with family members or in schools and makeshift tents, others were enduring high summer temperatures without any shelter at all.

“The civilian population in this part of northern Yemen has suffered from the combined effects of extreme poverty, protracted absence of health facilities, and insecurity for years before this latest crisis,” said Mr. Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. “Following this latest wave of displacement, needs are now acute.”

He added that the UN was also calling for the establishment of humanitarian corridors, to allow those trapped by fighting to escape and to enable humanitarian assistance to reach them. While the Government had agreed to the request, there were problems establishing direct contact with the rebel groups.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a first shipment of humanitarian supplies reached Sa’ada city earlier today, including antibiotics and diarrhoea medication. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also expressed “grave concern” yesterday about continuing clashes in the city, which it said had trapped some civilians and displaced around 35,000 people.

Although precise figures are hard to obtain because of insecurity and lack of access, there are an estimated 150,000 people displaced in northern Yemen, including 95,000 people affected by previous fighting and some 55,000 affected by more intense combat over the past two months. Humanitarian workers have established that these people urgently need food, shelter, health supplies, water, sanitation, emergency education and protection.

The flash appeal includes 12 non-governmental organization (NGO) projects, 25 UN projects, and one project by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and is intended to cover four months of relief work until the end of 2009.