2.3 billion euros in aid to Yemen

Geneva - The United Nations received aid pledges of 2.6 billion dollars (2.3 billion euros) for Yemen at an international donor conference. UN Secretary General António Guterres spoke of success in Geneva on Tuesday. Larger donations came from the two countries involved in the Yemen conflict, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Germany pledged 100 million euros, the EU over 160 million euros.

According to Guterres, the commitments for this year are 30 percent higher than at the donor conference last year. He did not give exact figures, but Saudi Arabia alone said it had promised $ 500 million. This means that its humanitarian aid has totaled $ 14 billion since 2014, Riyadh said.

24 million people are up Aid dependent

Diehoffen for pledges this year totaling 4.2 billion dollars. 24 million people depend on support in the war country, that is 80 percent of the population. Guterres spoke of an "overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe". 360,000 children alone are acutely malnourished, and according to "credible report" by the organization Save the Children, more than 80,000 of the up to five-year-olds have starved to death since the war began.

War has been raging in Yemen since 2015 between the Saudi Arabians Arabia and other Arab states supported troops led by President Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi and Shiite Houthi rebels backed by Iran. According to UN information, more than 10,000 people have already been killed in the conflict, including thousands of civilians.

Major donors are also getting involved in the conflict

criticized that some of the major donors were at the same time fuel the conflict further. Ultimately, the only way to resolve the humanitarian crisis is if the donor countries end their involvement in the war and hold the warring parties accountable for their atrocities, said Yemen program manager Charles Gaudry.

Guterres rejected the criticism. Regardless of the role country plays in conflict, it is necessary that humanitarian aid be provided, he said, emphasizing that aid is distributed equally to all those in need in all areas.

According to Guterres, he could For the first time since September, UN team reached warehouse with urgently needed wheat supplies for the starving population. In the Red Sea Mills on the outskirts of the embattled port city of Hodeida, 51,000 tons of wheat are stored - "enough to feed more than 3.7 million people for month," as spokesman said. Access to the granaries has been blocked since the fighting over Hodeida began in September.

Representatives of the government and the Houthi rebels had agreed on ceasefire for the December Notified port city of Hodeida. In February, both sides agreed on the first phase of troop withdrawal from Hodeida and two other ports. After that, the plant with the wheat stocks controlled by the government troops should be freely accessible again.

Aid organizations demand an end to the arms deliveries

The aid organizations Care, Oxfam, NRC and Save the Children criticized that the promised 2.3 billion euros “nowhere near the required 3.7 billion euros”. At the same time, they appealed to all countries that sold weapons to warring parties in Yemen to “end these deals with immediate effect”.

The leader of the Green Group, Anton Hofreiter, called on the federal government to stop German arms exports to those involved in the war stop permanently. As long as Berlin only briefly suspends the delivery of German armaments to “countries like Saudi Arabia, which are actively involved in the war,” he said, it thwarted its own humanitarian commitment “and is complicit in the suffering and death in Yemen”.