Countries pledge Dh4.04bn at donor conference for Yemen

A Yemeni woman walks past a child at a camp for people displaced by the war, near Sanaa, on April 25, 2017. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

Countries around the world pledged more than US$1 billion on Tuesday to help prevent a looming famine in war-torn Yemen at a conference the UN secretary-general called a "remarkable success".

The $1.1bn (Dh4.04bn) promised in Geneva fell far short of the $2.1bn the United Nations has estimated is needed this year alone. But secretary-general Antonio Guterres praised the generosity of donor nations, pointing out that such conferences do not usually gather more than a third of the requested amount.

He said this showed a "remarkable solidarity with the Yemeni people".

Earlier at the conference Mr Guterres said Yemen needed massive funds to avert famine and that the country’s warring parties must ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered.

"Yemen today is experiencing a tragedy of immense proportions," he said. "We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation."

Yemen’s war has killed over 10,000 civilians and pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.

A total of 17 million people – or 60 per cent of its population – are going hungry making this "the world’s largest hunger crisis", said Mr Guterres.

Seven million of them do not know where their next meal is coming from and need immediate food aid.

Mr Guterres renewed a call for peace talks and urged all parties to "facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid by air, sea and land".

"All infrastructure must remain open and operational," he said.

Aid groups want improved access to people in need, and a halt to air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition that is backing the Yemeni government in its war against Houthi rebels.

The Iran-backed Shiite rebels seized Yemen’s capital and other areas in 2014, forcing the internationally-recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to flee.

Yemen imports 90 per cent of its food, 70 per cent of which passes through the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeidah, currently held by the Houthi militias and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The coalition, which includes mostly Arab Sunni countries, has urged the UN to put Hodeidah – the main entry point for aid – under its supervision to facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies to Yemen and to prevent the smuggling of weapons to the Houthis at the port.

Yemen’s prime minister Ahmed Obeid Bin Daghr said his government, which controls only part of the country, would allow access for aid supplies.

"We are ready to open new corridors for this aid," he said.

Initial pledges announced at the conference on Tuesday included $150 million from Saudi Arabia, $100m from Kuwait, €50m (Dh200m) from Germany and $94m from the United States.

The World Food Programme has committed $1bn to Yemen and reached a record five million people last month with rations but needs to scale up deliveries to reach nine million who are deemed "severely food insecure", its regional director Muhannad Hadi said. They include some three million malnourished children.

"If the international community does not move right now, and if WFP does not get the right funding and support to address all needs, I think the cost of that will be real famine that will shame us in coming months and weeks," Mr Hadi said.

"We are concerned about [all] facilities in Yemen because at this stage we can’t afford to even lose one bridge or one road network let alone to lose a major facility like Hodeidah port," he said.

Children especially are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

"On average, a child under the age of five dies of preventable causes in Yemen every 10 minutes," Mr Guterres said.

"This means 50 children in Yemen will die during today’s conference, and all those deaths could have been prevented."

Many of the children who survive "will be affected by stunting and poor health for their entire lives", the UN chief added.