UN to Halt 21 Aid Programs, Promised Aid to Yemen Not Delivered

YemenExtra

M.A.

A top UN official warned Monday that Yemen’s devastating five-year war by Saudi-led coalition has knocked the country back 20 years in terms of development and access to education, the Associated Press reported.

“Much of the Yemeni economy has collapsed. People literally do not have any money to buy food,” Achim Steiner, UN Development Program administrator said.

“Thousands of schools are closed, millions of children aren’t able to attend school, missing a generation of education,” he said. “Yemen has lost… 20 years of development.”

Steiner recently returned from a visit to Yemen, including the strategic port city of Hodeidah. He waned that one in every three Yemenis is at risk of starving to death, out of a population of 30 million.

He also mentioned that the UNDP in Yemen faces financial difficulties as pledges for humanitarian support in Yemen were close to $3 billion this year, but less than $1.1 billion has been delivered.

“We will have to stop programs, we will have to cut rations, and probably in the next two to three months, 21 support programs in the country have to be stopped,” he warned.