The result of a donor conference of the UN in Geneva, with an amount of 2.6 billion Swiss francs for the needy people in Yemen see. “The conference can be regarded as a success,” said Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, on Tuesday in front of the media. The conference was a starting point for further donations.
The UN needs this year, 4.2 billion dollars for emergency assistance in Yemen. In order to support 24 million people – 80 percent of the population. “Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the beginning of the war, or wounded, including many civilians,” the defendant Guterres. 20 million people suffered from Hunger.
Guterres called for unhindered access for emergency relief.According to the UN emergency relief coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has worsened the humanitarian situation in Yemen to 2018, compared to the previous year. Because in the war was intensified. Other causes the failure to respect international humanitarian law and a collapse of the economy in mid-2018.
protection of civilians required
The EU Commission said on Tuesday 161,50 million euros. Switzerland says it is ready to 13.5 million Swiss francs. Switzerland call on the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, said Federal councillor Simonetta Sommaruga in her speech. Civilians, schools and hospitals would have to be protected.
A further Million francs in Switzerland for the UN envoy Martin Griffith-mediated peace process. Switzerland was prepared to host further peace talks, said Sommaruga. You’ve offered to the Yemeni foreign Minister.
Sommaruga, presided at the conference as Vice-President of the Federal Council, together with Guterres, and to the Swedish foreign Minister. Margot Wallström urged before the media that the peace process must be comprehensive and also women in the negotiations.
dubious donations
With the $ 750 million want to donate, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the highest contributions. The two countries in March 2015, a coalition that fights an uprising of the Houthi rebels with air attacks. It will always be Victims, once again, civilians. Earlier, the Houthi had conquered large parts of the country and the government from the capital Sana’a displaced.
Guterres stressed that the humanitarian aid will be distributed in accordance with the need. Would have accepted all of the donor countries. The organization Doctors without borders (MSF) criticized, however, that many donor countries were involved in the war and the supply of the population with humanitarian aid for the disabled. The war parties would continue to destroy the infrastructure of the country, including health care. Therefore, many people suffering from preventable diseases such as diphtheria and Cholera.
Manuel Bessler, head of the Swiss humanitarian aid unit (SHA), is the money of all countries is required for the emergency in Yemen. The contributions are not a free pass, that does not comply with international humanitarian law, he said, the news Agency Keystone-SDA.
among the priorities of the humanitarian commitment, Switzerland, in Yemen, the access to drinking water, food safety, and the protection of the population. In cooperation with the United Nations children’s Fund, Unicef, Switzerland recycles about drinking water in Sana’a, as Bessler said. The Yemeni capital suffers from lack of water.
access to wheat stocks
Meanwhile, the UN received for the first time since September access to their grain store in the port city of Hodeida, located in a contested area. An evaluation team from the world food programme (WFP) was able to visit the camp on Tuesday, said WFP spokesman Hervé Verhoosel-to-Keystone-SDA. There is 51’000 tonnes of wheat, of which 3.7 million people during one month can be supplied.
In December, the Yemeni government and the Houthi signed in Stockholm under the UN brokering a cease-fire agreement for Hodeida. The port city of a large part of the humanitarian reach of humanitarian aid in the country. The parties to the conflict agreed but only in mid-February on a withdrawal of troops. The should make of the government forces-controlled grain storage accessible again. (fal/sda)
Created: 26.02.2019, 19:09 PM
