The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned Monday of a "death sentence" on the Yemenis, expressing his disappointment after an international donors conference collected less than half of what this country needs, which took place with the Houthis' attempt to advance towards the city of Marib.
He expressed his disappointment, saying that the pledges represent a retreat from last year, when the total aid received by the United Nations and relief organizations operating in Yemen amounted to 1.9 billion dollars in light of the Corona virus crisis, and about a billion less than in 2019.
"Millions of Yemeni children, women and men desperately need aid to survive. Cutting off aid is a death sentence," Guterres said in a statement.
The Secretary-General emphasized that the best that can be said of what was collected is that it represents a down payment only. He thanked those who pledged the grants and asked others to think again about what they could do to avoid "the worst famine the world has seen in decades."
Mark Lowcock: We'll need more money (Al Jazeera)
The Humanitarian and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, also warned after the meeting that "the money we received today is not enough to stop starvation. We will need more money."
For its part, the Norwegian Refugee Council, commenting on the donors ’conference, said," The shortage of humanitarian aid will be met with loss of life. "
As for the "Save the Children" organization, it said that the world has turned its back on the Yemenis.
The United Nations has appealed to donor countries to donate to raise $ 3.85 billion, but the total pledges in the end amounted to only about 1.7 billion.
About 100 donor countries and donors participated in the hypothetical conference, and the United States pledged $ 191 million, Saudi Arabia $ 430 million, which are less than the donations last year from the two countries, while Germany raised its donations from 140 million last year to 240 million.
Ending the war
On the other hand, the Houthis saw that the donors ’conference was merely an opportunity to" whiten "the page of their opponents, so their spokesman Muhammad Abdul Salam said on Twitter," Conferences of a humanitarian nature for Yemen in light of the aggression and siege that Yemen is subjected to do not help Yemen as much as it helps the countries of aggression by making them available. " Opportunity for her to bleach her page. "
The political official in the Houthi movement, Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, said, "The biggest grant for Yemenis is to stop the aggression and lift the air embargo and the deadly blockade," calling for an end to arms sales to countries supporting the government.
Parallel to the hypothetical conference, the battles for Marib were at their height, and it embraces more than two million displaced people who fled confrontations in other regions, which puts their fate in danger while pushing them to flee again.
For his part, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Muhammad Al-Sabah urged the US Special Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking to continue to pressure the Houthis to stop the attacks targeting civilian facilities, reiterating his country's condemnation and denunciation of these attacks and its eagerness to reach a political solution.
During the donors conference, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on the Houthis to stop their attack on Marib and join the Saudis and the Yemeni government in taking constructive steps towards peace.