Kuwait Fund, UNHCR ink $2mn deal to help displaced Yemenis
200,000 people to benefit
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 28: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) signed today an agreement worth US$2 million to support internally displaced in Yemen.
The agreement was signed by Marwan Al Ghanem, Director General of KFAED and Nisreen Rubaian, UNHCR’s Representative in Kuwait at the Fund’s headquarters in Kuwait.
The agreement aims to support UNHCR’s efforts in providing the most vulnerable internally displaced and host communities in Yemen with shelter solutions, such as: improvement and maintenance of the host community’s infrastructure; and installing solar-powered street lighting in 25 internally displaced sites in Hudaydah and Hajjah. This oneyear project is expected to benefit more than 200,000 people during its implementation duration.
UNHCR’s Representative in Kuwait Nisreen Rubaian thanked KFAED and expressed her gratitude for their continuous support to UNHCR’s humanitarian activities around the world. She also lauded KFAED’s generous contribution and stated: “we appreciate our strategic partnership with KFAED, which has taken upon itself to help refugees and displaced persons through humanitarian assistance as well as its role as a leading development arm of the Government of Kuwait. This reflects the commitment of Kuwaiti Government and its leadership towards providing continuous support and the most needed funding for the humanitarian efforts, and we look forward to continue and enhance this collaboration to help refugees and forcibly displaced people around the world.”
On his part, KFAED’s Director General Marwan Al Ghanem expressed his appreciation to UNHCR’s efforts in supporting forcibly displaced people, especially in the MENA region, and added: “We are proud of our partnership with UNHCR, and we hope to support their efforts to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable displaced families in Yemen, in effort to improve their harsh living conditions.”
After more than six years of the conflict’s outbreak in Yemen, it remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with over than 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and 5 million people on the brink of famine. According to the latest statistics, there are more than 4 million internally displaced Yemenis, and nearly 40,000 people have been forced to flee in Marib since September. This represents almost 70% of all displacements in this south-eastern governorate since the beginning of the year. Marib now hosts half of the estimated 120,000 newly displaced countrywide in 2021.
New displacement is exacerbating the existing humanitarian needs, drastically increasing the need for shelter, essential household items, water and sanitation, education, and protection services – in particular for children.