Funding shortage in Yemen

The humanitarian funding situation in Yemen has significantly worsened for the past few months since donors agreed to recalibrate assistance in Brussels in February, coupled with the U.S. suspension which began in March. Never before have Yemenis faced so many simultaneous challenges.
Yemen sits on the edge of famine according to the last IPC data, large-scale conflict, economic collapse, natural disasters like flooding and locusts, and now a global pandemic which is not covered as it must be. All indicators are in red and or alarming for the majority of sectors of interventions
The HRP is underfunded at levels that are unprecedented, with only 1 billion received so far in 2020, as compared with 4 billion received in 2018 and 5 billion in 2019.

Due to the significant financial crisis, the HCT is working on a second HRP revision in the aim to conduct a prioritization exercise. The lack of commitment of GCC donors remain a serious issue combined with limited progresses on the benchmarks according to certain donors. As a result, the UN is already shutting down a number of their programmes.

On 11 August, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths met with Vice President and Prime Minister in Riyadh. Griffiths has travelled to Saudi Arabia, his second visit in two months, to persuade the Hadi government to accept his proposal for a ceasefire. In July, the government had rejected amendments made by Ansar Allah to the original draft of the proposal, with spokesperson saying that the plan did not respect the sovereignty of the government and that Griffiths had exceeded his mandate as special envoy. Griffiths also met Saudi Ambassador, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), discussing peace talks, the Riyadh Agreement, and efforts to allow a UN assessment team to inspect the decaying SAFER FSO. Ansar Allah, meanwhile, have refused to meet Griffiths, protesting coalition airstrikes and the continued detention of fuel ships, alleging perceived bias by the envoy towards the coalition.

A report published on 10 August by the US State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the State Department had failed to assess the full extent of civilian casualties through US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The probe, however, stated that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, s that the secretary had acted within the law when he authorized the sale of arms in May 2019 through an emergency declaration based on Iranian support for the Houthis. The report noted that the relevant law, the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), gives the government executive the right to define what constitutes an “emergency”, so the OIG made “no assessment of the policy decisions underlying the arms transfers and the associated emergency”. The report highlighted that “the Department did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns associated with the transfer of PGMs [precision guided munitions] included in the Secretary’s May 2019 emergency certification”. The report also found that the State Department had been selling PGMs in component parts so that each individual transfer fell below the threshold requiring congressional approval. There were “4,221 below-threshold arms transfers involving Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with an estimated total value of $11.2bn since January 2017”, the OIG said.

Flooding in Yemen

Torrential rain and flooding are continuing to cause devastation across Yemen, a country already suffering from one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world. In the past month, at least 172 people have been killed in Yemen by flash floods, while thousands have been displaced as houses and infrastructure have been severely damaged. One of the worst-hit areas has been Marib, where 30 people have been killed, of which 19 were children, and 1,340 families in IDP camps in the governorate have had their tents and belongings washed away. Wide-ranging damage has been reported in most governorates. In Sana’a city, three children drowned on 6 August, and dozens of houses have been destroyed, including parts of a wall that surrounds the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Old City collapsed along with four old vacant houses. In Raymah, 17 people have been reported dead, in addition to damage caused to agricultural land and civilian dwellings, and the sweeping away of asphalted roads. Ar Rawnah dam in Thula district in Amran almost completely collapsed as a result of overflow, flooding the cities of Imran and Shibam Kawkaban. In total, in Houthi-controlled areas, the authorities reported on 9 August that 131 people have been killed and 124 injured, while 156 houses had been damaged.

COVID in Yemen

The official number of COVID-19 deaths in Yemen surpassed 500 last week, according to the health authorities, with WHO reporting on 23 August, that there had been 1,911 COVID infections in Yemen and 547 deaths. The figures are based only on the numbers provided by local health authorities in Government-controlled areas. See latest COVID-19 snapshot from HCT.

A recent survey done by IRC found that Yemenis surveyed are more worried about hunger than COVID-19. Key finding include:

• Survey respondents noted a 30 percent decrease in salaries since the start of the pandemic.
• More than 68 percent of respondents noted an increase in commodities prices, especially food.
• 51 percent of respondents cited increases in food prices as one of their most important concerns.
• 62 percent of respondents report not being able to afford basic household items like food and water.