Yemen

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION

Global Action Needed to Deter Future Abuses and War Crimes

The world has sat largely silent while Yemeni civilians endure horrors.

Since March 2015, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has bombed their homes, markets, schools, and hospitals. Opposing Houthi-Saleh forces have shelled cities and laid landmines that will harm civilians for years to come. Both sides have carried out arbitrary detentions, torture, and forced disappearances.

The Monaco Red Cross is launching an appeal for solidarity to help curb one of the widest food crises which is currently rife in Africa

Nobody talks about Yemen. Since March 2015, violence in Yemen has claimed more than 10,000 lives, resulted in 2.2 million internally displaced people and 20 million people living in extreme poverty.

The scope and complexity of the crisis are resulting in a rise of malnutrition rates, driven by growing food insecurity, water shortages, displacement and poor sanitation.

We've just had some really exciting news from Yemen.

This week we were finally able to run our first food distribution. And it couldn't have gone better.

We were able to get urgent food packages to 317 families around Sana'a.

Each family now has enough food for the next month.

As the first international NGO registered in Yemen since the conflict started, it's great to see our emergency response in full swing with the next distribution taking place this Saturday.

About the food crisis in Yemen

UK arms trade with Saudi Arabia worth less than 50p for taxpayers, but brings in more than £6bn to arms dealers at the price of millions of lives in Yemen.

Today we have released a new report revealing that the revenues to the UK arms manufactures creating weapons sold to Saudi Arabia is double previous estimates.

The pitiful tax income from UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia sits at an estimated £30 million from corporation tax receipts and equates to less than 50p per head of the UK population towards public services.

Highlights

• In Q2 2017, an average of 4.9 million beneficiaries per month received general food distribution (GFD) and Commodity Voucher through Traders’ Network (CV-TN) assistance; there was an increase in the monthly average of beneficiaries reached since Q1 when an average of 4.3 million beneficiaries per month received assistance. A total of 153,736 MT of food was distributed in Q2, which had increased by 152 percent since Q1 when a total of 60,916 MT of food was distributed.

Availability of essential food commodities improved in many governorates in August. However, the contraction of the overall economy and price increases of basic commodities have resulted in a reduction of the purchasing power of Yemeni households. Fuel imports are still below half the level of the country’s needs. As access to clean water in Yemen mostly depends on fuel-powered pumps, fuel shortages are a contributing factor to the humanitarian crisis.

In August, UNHCR recorded 349 new arrivals (259 Somalis, 80 Yemenis and 10 Ethiopians) from Yemen. ■ In 2017, 3,777 new arrivals reached Somalia, including 3,147 Somalis, 600 Yemenis and 30 third country nationals. ■ Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen, 38,537 individuals arrived to Somalia, including 32,622 Somalis, 5,572 Yemenis and 343 third country nationals.

September 23rd, 2017 ― Doha: Qatar Red Crescent Society's (QRCS) mission in Yemen has provided medical equipment and consumables to health facilities in four Yemeni governorates.

Under a multi-sector humanitarian programme, the $95,238 worth of medical supplies are estimated to serve more than 83,000 patients visiting five health centers in Taiz, Sana'a, Ibb, and Al-Hudaydah.

These include ultrasound devices, blood pressure monitors, medical microscope, blood test machines, test tubes, delivery room equipment, waiting room seats, and other medical aid.

The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiologists and health professionals on active public health threats. This issue covers the period 17-23 September 2017 and includes updates on malaria, typhoid fever, Chikungunya, Legionnaires' disease and West Nile fever.