MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2020) The World Health Organization (WHO) does not have enough funding and supplies to efficiently fight the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in Yemen, which is being further aggravated by the imminent scaling down of the majority of UN humanitarian programs in the devastated country, Altaf Musani, the WHO representative in Yemen, told Sputnik in an interview.
The United Nations has for months warned that it would be forced to shut down several major aid programs in Yemen since funds pledged by member states had "failed to materialize." In April, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Lowcock said the majority of programs in the war-torn country would be scaled down or closed in the coming weeks unless funding is urgently secured.
"The problem is we do not have the funding and COVID-19 supplies. To further complicate matters, humanitarian funding is urgently needed, 31 of the UN's 41 major humanitarian programs will be either reduced or shut down in the coming weeks," Musani said.
Musani stated that although Yemen was one of the last countries to acknowledge the COVID-19 epidemic, response activities were launched as early as January, and WHO is continuing to support the authorities amid dramatic resource constraints.
"We are facing a fiscal cliff that will ensure we will no longer have the ability to provide a living wage or 'incentives' for over 10,000 health care workers � the backbone of Yemen's functioning hospitals and health facilities," the WHO representative concluded.
