A funding shortage is threatening to force the closure of 60 food centers in Yemen and halt plans to vaccinate some 13 million people in the country, United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said during a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) A funding shortage is threatening to force the closure of 60 food centers in Yemen and halt plans to vaccinate some 13 million people in the country, United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said during a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday."Agencies are starting to suspend some regular vaccination campaigns targeting 13 million people, including 200,000 infants," Lowcock said. "Up to 60 existing [feeding] centers could close in the coming weeks, putting at least 7,000 malnourished children at immediate risk of death."
Lowcock said that only 34 percent of the $2.6 billion that was pledged during a donors conference in February has been funded, a critically low figure when compared to 60 percent that had already been funded by this time last year.
"Those who made the largest pledges - Yemen's neighbors in the Coalition - have so far paid only a modest proportion of what they promised," Lowcock added.
The UN humanitarian chief said that in Sanaa, a UN plan that purifies water for agriculture has also begun shutting down and will expose up to 4 million people at risk of contracting cholera.
He added that by August and September, due to the probable closures of 21 critical UN programs, more than 800,000 displaced people will be deprived of shelter.
On February 26, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs secured $2.6 billion in aid pledges from various partners to fund the 2019 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. The United Nations seeks $4 billion from its members to provide life-saving assistance to 21.4 million people in Yemen.
The armed conflict in Yemen between government forces, led by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthis has been ongoing since 2015. The United Nations has repeatedly called the Yemeni conflict the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 24 million people - nearly 80 percent of the country's population - currently in need of aid and protection.
