UK announces £160 million to Yemem to fight the coronavirus

UK announces £160 million to Yemem to fight the coronavirus. UK has already committed £970 million to Yemen

A new package of UK aid worth £160million will help fight coronavirus and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced today.

Speaking ahead of today’s UN conference on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said:

“This targeted UK aid package will mean the difference between life and death for thousands of Yemenis who now also face the threat of coronavirus. Our support will help ensure families can feed themselves and access clean water and medical care.

I pay tribute to aid workers on the frontline who are working around the clock to get help to where it is needed. To achieve lasting peace, Yemeni leaders must urgently agree to the UN Special Envoy’s peace plan to bring an end to this terrible conflict.”

Even before the pandemic, Yemen was already experiencing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world with more than 24 million people, over 80% of the population, requiring some form of assistance. Nearly a quarter of Yemen’s districts have no doctors and only half of the country’s health facilities are still functional, with 20 million people lacking any access to medical care.

The Foreign Secretary is expected to tell delegates at the virtual UN High Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen that aid workers will struggle to deliver this assistance unless restrictions placed upon them, particularly by the Houthis, are lifted.

The UK’s package, from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), will help to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in Yemen and expects to provide over 700,000 medical consultations, train 12,000 healthcare workers to work safely in a COVID-19 environment and provide a much-needed boost to nearly 4,000 health centres to continue providing existing health services.

The new funding also aims to provide support to at least 300,000 vulnerable people each month to help them buy food and household essentials, treat 40,000 children for malnutrition and provide 1 million people with improved water supply and basic sanitation.

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