International donors have convened today in Geneva to jump-start funding for the humanitarian operation in Yemen. The high-level event was being hosted by the UN Secretary-General and the Governments of Sweden and Switzerland. Despite a six-month truce in 2022, widespread suffering persists in the country mainly due to the deteriorating economy and the collapse of basic services.
After years of war, Yemen remains one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. 21.6 million people – two thirds of the country’s population – will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2023. Among them are 12.9 million children. Nearly 6 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of the civil war in 2015. 4.3 million people are internally displaced inside Yemen, among them an estimated 2 million children.
Although a six-month UN-brokered truce, which held between 2 April and 2 October last year, brought some relief to civilians, widespread suffering has continued, mainly due to the country’s deteriorating economy and collapsing basic services. Yemen is also at the forefront of the global climate crisis, with recurrent natural disasters such as severe drought and flooding threatening people’s lives, safety and well-being.
“We ended last year with a measure of hope for the future of Yemen”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “After years of death, displacement, destruction, starvation, and suffering, the truce delivered real dividends for people.”
Aid agencies need US$4.3 billion (€4,05 billion) this year to assist 17.3 million people across the country. Record global humanitarian needs are stretching donor support like never before, but without sustained support for the aid operation in Yemen, the lives of millions of Yemenis will hang in the balance, and efforts to end the conflict once and for all will become even more challenging.
“The people of Yemen deserve our support. But more than that, they deserve a credible path out of perpetual conflict and a chance to rebuild their communities and country. Humanitarian aid is a band aid. It saves lives, but it cannot resolve the conflict itself”, Mr. Guterres said.
In 2022, donors provided more than $2.2 billion, enabling aid agencies to reach nearly 11 million people across the country every month with life-saving assistance, including food, clean water, shelter, protection and education. More than 200 humanitarian organizations delivered aid across all of Yemen’s 333 districts.
Also speaking at the Yemen High Level Pledging Event was Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who pointed to what he called “small pieces of light.” Mr. Griffiths noted that the truce signed last April led to falling numbers of civilian casualties and displacement, and he called for the truce to be renewed and expanded.
He also said that the number of people who need humanitarian aid has dropped slightly, with some of the worst needs having receded. Mr. Griffiths said this demonstrates very clearly in a very positive and constructive way that in Yemen, as in other chronic crises around the world, progress is possible.
Towards the end of 2022, new data indicated a slight improvement in food security projections, with the number of people in famine-like conditions dropping from 161,000 to zero. But this progress remains extremely fragile and could quickly reverse if aid agencies are forced to scale back or suspend programming due to funding gaps.
The pledging event concluded today with a total of almost US$1.2 billion pledged by some 30 donors; only 28 percent of the required US$4.3 billion has been raised. In 2022, the United Nations had appealed for US$4.27 billion US Dollar in funding for the Yemen Crisis. By the end of the year, only US$2.28 billion had been received from donors (53 percent coverage).