Saud House Financial Pledges to Yemen, Promises only for Media

The United Nations says the successive pledges of the Saudi regime in Yemen to humanitarian relief support in Yemen are merely promises to the media.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are refusing to pay the aid they have pledged to Yemen, leaving Yemenis at risk of death, according to a report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The United Nations has revealed that these countries have paid only a part of what they have pledged to the war-torn country.

Donors pledged $ 2.6 billion in February, including $ 1.5 billion from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but Yemen received less than half of the value.

Most donors have fulfilled their pledges, and some have done more than they have pledged, but the largest donors, represented in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have paid only a part of what they promised.

A UN spokesman said in a statement last Wednesday that Saudi Arabia had paid only $ 127 million, while Abu Dhabi had paid only $ 16 million, adding that when money did not come, people were vulnerable to death.

The report added that the Saudi pledge of funding was made at a press conference amid a media hype, and that Saudi public relations advisers hope that this aid will be the source of much of the good publicity needed by the Saudi regime.

Lloyd Russell-Moell, a member of the British Labor parliament and an arms committee member in the House of Commons, says Saudi Arabia spends $ 50 billion a year to destroy Yemen and create millions of refugees, but refuses to spend just a fraction of that money to ensure that survivors of the bombing and siege do not die from hunger.

The United Nations has warned that if new funding is not received in the coming weeks, food rations for some 12 million Yemenis will be reduced, and that 2.5 million malnourished children will not have access to food and medicine to survive.

The UN agency has already had to suspend most of the vaccination campaigns scheduled for next May, and 22 vital lifesaving programs in Yemen will all be halted in the next two months unless new funds arrive, the report says.

The newspaper pointed out that the Saudi authorities did not respond to its request to respond to the statements of the United Nations in this regard.

Millions of Yemenis are suffering severe food and health care shortages due to Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s failure to honor their financial commitments to the war-torn country for years, according to a report published by the Middle East Eye website.

In a statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says food aid to more than 12 million Yemenis and health services to another 19 million has been severely curtailed due to severe funding shortfalls, given Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s lack of commitment to provide financial assistance. They pledged earlier this year.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned on Wednesday that the humanitarian crisis would leave more Yemenis vulnerable to hunger and disease unless donor countries fulfill their pledges within weeks.

Dujarric said at a news conference in New York that 22 programs to save civilian lives in Yemen were threatened with closure within the next two months, if donors did not meet the pledged funds.

He added that the United Nations had to suspend most of the vaccination campaigns in Yemen in May, and stopped the provision of medicines, and cut off financial support for thousands of health workers.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged up to $ 1.5 billion in aid to Yemen, he said, in response to a UN humanitarian appeal launched in February to raise $ 2.6 billion to save the lives of Yemenis trapped by war and famine.

The United Arab Emirates has so far paid only $ 16 million of its pledge, and Saudi Arabia has pledged only $ 127 million, the report says.