UAE’s relief efforts in Yemen noteworthy

It’s the historic and fraternal relationship between the two countries that prompted the UAE to pursue its efforts to restore security and stability in Yemen.

To this day, the UAE has spared no effort in helping the Yemeni people in their time of need.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and others well deserve the praise showered on them by a top UN official regarding funding for the Humanitarian Response Plan in Yemen.

“New funding since September from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, United States and others has enabled agencies to re-open suspended programmes,” stated Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in her briefing to the Security Council on the Humanitarian Situation in Yemen in New York on Friday.

Every month in Yemen, some 250 humanitarian partners work with the United Nations to assist more than 13 million people in the country. They are delivering the world’s largest humanitarian operation in an extremely challenging environment.

Humanitarian access remains an enormous challenge in Yemen, particularly in areas controlled by the Houthis.

The Houthi authorities continue to enforce a growing number of restrictive regulations on humanitarian action. These restrictions regularly hinder assistance for millions of people. Although partners are still able to deliver aid, doing so requires constant engagement at all levels, often resulting in unacceptable delays for people who need the help.

The UN official has underscored the point that there has been an alarming increase in violence and harassment targeting humanitarian workers in areas controlled by Ansar Allah.

Over the past three months, there have been 60 separate incidents of attacks, intimidation, detention and other forms of mistreatment of humanitarian staff.

In several cases, looting of relief supplies and occupation of humanitarian premises have disrupted critical deliveries of aid and services. The humanitarian operating environment in the north remains extremely constrained.

On another front, the momentum to reach a political settlement in Yemen has been building, as per the United Nations Special Envoy to the country, who has attributed the positive development to compromises on a range of issues.

Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has made it clear that momentum is building thanks to developments such as the Riyadh Agreement, signed on Nov.5 between the Government and the Southern Transitional Council; a decrease in violence — with the observation that there have been 48-hour periods without airstrikes for the first time since the conflict began — and the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement, which among other things, has enabled fuel ships to enter the crucial port city of Hudaydah, averting a worsening humanitarian crisis.

A significant point to note is that the United Arab Emirates is the largest donor for Yemeni people during the Humanitarian Response Plan from early 2019 through September 23, 2019, as acknowledged by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The UAE’s humanitarian assistance delivered to the people of Yemen, since 2015 through September 23, 2019, amounted to as much as Dhs21.70 billion, 37 per cent of which — Dhs7.93 billion — is humanitarian aid.

Developmental aid, including rehabilitation and reconstruction projects, accounted for 63 per cent of the UAE’s total aid, which amounts to Dhs13.70 billion.

The UAE has won the hearts of the Yemeni people through its humanitarian and developmental initiatives.