UN closes 3,000 health centers in Yemen due to lack of funding
Eighty percent of the Yemeni population depends on United Nations aid.
AP Photo / Wail al-Qubaty
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2 min
As Yemen faces one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, the UN is totally or partially closing 3,000 health centers for lack of funding.
The United Nations may well organize donor conferences to raise funds, international aid remains insufficient.
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For food, health care and shelter, 80% of the Yemeni population, more than 20 million people, depend entirely on United Nations assistance.
“
We need more than three billion dollars to complete our operations in Yemen.
It is more than for any other country.
We raised just over $ 1 billion.
So we have no choice: because of the lack of funding we have to reduce our services in health centers
, ”laments Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in the country.
This decision comes at a critical moment, particularly because of the health crisis in this country.
“
We have the worst death rate from coronavirus in the world,”
notes Lise Grande.
Here, three in ten Covid patients die.
We also have to face famine and cholera.
And because we lack funding, we are no longer able to operate more than half of the health centers across the country
”.
For the past five years, Saudi Arabia and its allies have waged a destructive war in Yemen.
The powerful Gulf monarchy officially claims to come to the aid of the Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels.
Riyadh even hosted an international donor conference last June.
But according to the UN, the Saudis have not honored their pledges.
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