Yemen aid relief top priority: UAE

Top Stories

Yemen aid relief top priority: UAE

New York­ - The UAE has contributed nearly $4 billion of aid since April 2015.

By Wam

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Fri 22 Jun 2018, 9:43 PM

Last updated: Fri 22 Jun 2018, 11:48 PM

The UAE is committed to maintaining and accelerating its cooperation and coordination with the United Nations and other international organisations to boost humanitarian relief and contingency planning in Yemen, said Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, UAE's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
Nusseibeh made the remarks while addressing a press briefing with UN-based correspondents on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. The event was held at the Saudi Mission in New York and hosted by Ambassador Abdallah Yehya Al Mouallimi, Saudi Permanent Representative to the UN.
"The coalition has made humanitarian relief a priority," Nusseibeh said as she and Saudi officials said their countries were providing tonnes of food, trucks and aircraft to transport humanitarian supplies, and other help. The two nations also together gave more than $900 million to UN humanitarian efforts in Yemen earlier this year.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels, meanwhile, have laid landmines, killing and wounding civilians. They have also targeted religious minorities and imprisoned opponents, the UAE ambassador said.
She said the UAE has contributed nearly $4 billion of aid since April 2015, covering a number of sectors, from emergency food provision to water to electricity to education to social services, and to other critical areas".
"We believe that the $465 million contribution we made earlier this year through the UN for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is a new, landmark chapter for humanitarian assistance to Yemen," said the ambassador.
Nusseibeh said the Hodeida port is a part Yemen's critical infrastructure. The Arab Coalition and UN coordination has enabled approximately 30 ships to unload in the last month. Moreover, the coalition has made a clear commitment to protecting and preserving the port and other key humanitarian infrastructure, she added.
"There are no such assurances from Houthi forces. We are encountering an enormous number of mines and IEDs, and it is believed that the port is also mined," the UAE ambassador added.
The ambassador said that according to some reports, the Houthis are deliberately planning to create a humanitarian crisis and exacerbate the overall conflict.
"Houthis are blocking the unloading of ships at Hodeida port; forcing aid groups to remove surveillance cameras in warehouses, abetting the Houthi theft and diversion of food supplies; destroying the water and sewage systems by deep digging to build berms for tanks and artillery placed in residential neighbourhoods," the ambassador added.
Nusseibeh said Houthi actions against humanitarian infrastructure need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.


More news from