(Geneva) Donor countries pledged 1.2 billion dollars to help the population of Yemen, starving and impoverished by the war, to the chagrin of humanitarian aid organizations which asked for more than 4 billion.
“The international community has shown that it has abandoned Yemen,” immediately accused Erin Hutchinson, the Yemen manager of the highly respected NGO Norwegian Refugee Council. This demonstrates, according to her, that “some humans are less valuable than others”.
A clear allusion to the massive mobilization of allies of Ukraine, which are also, very often, the main donor countries of humanitarian aid.
The United Nations – supported by Switzerland and Sweden – organized Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) the 7e donor conference for Yemen, which has been plagued by devastating conflict since 2014.
“We had 31 pledges today and they total $1.2 billion,” said Martin Griffiths, who manages emergencies at the UN. And to add: “If we could reach two billion by this weekend, that would be great”.
He recalled that during the previous donors’ conference last year, the amount initially pledged had been about the same and that finally, in view of the gravity of the situation, the countries had given around 2, 2 billion.
With only half of the funds hoped for, aid agencies had to cut food rations.
But they had also been able to reduce the number of people on the brink of starvation from over 150,000 to almost zero.
For the thirty international NGOs active in Yemen and signatories of a joint press release, “without the necessary funds, it will be impossible to provide vital aid for those who need it most. »
Aid organizations hope to reach 17 million people this year, out of the 21.7 million who need assistance in Yemen.
Aid which, according to NGOs, is all the more essential as it comes “at a pivotal moment” for the country.
hope for peace
“This year we have a real opportunity to change the trajectory of Yemen and move towards peace,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who had made the trip to the shores of Lake Geneva.
Yemen is in the throes of a bloody conflict between Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, and the internationally recognized government, aided by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. In eight years, the war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and pushed the population to the brink of starvation.
A six-month ceasefire, which expired in October but has markedly reduced violence, gives some “hope for the future”, the UN chief said.
“To end the humanitarian crisis, we must start by ending the war,” urged Yemeni Prime Minister Maïn Abdelmalak Saïd, who was also in Geneva.
Many conference participants demanded unhindered access for humanitarian aid and for the Houthis to abolish rules that prohibit female humanitarian workers from working without being accompanied by a man.
” Question of life or death ”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged “more than $444 million” in aid from the United States, bringing its total contribution since the start of the war to more than $5.4 billion.
“As long as the fighting continues, the suffering will continue”, he regretted in a video message, while “Yemen now has one of the best opportunities to [parvenir à la] peace since the beginning of the war”.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock regretted that the world “too often turns a blind eye” to Yemen. Germany will give 120 million euros in aid.
Martin Griffiths hoped that this conference would be the last.
“The fact is that the Yemeni crisis has gone on for too long, punishing millions of innocent people who didn’t want it and who deserve so much better,” he said.