UAE gave $4.9 billion in aid to Yemen
Abu Dhabi — Extending to all governorates within Yemen, UAE humanitarian aid efforts have a single objective; to restore the country to its full potential.
Since April 2015, the UAE has worked on food aid programmes, the building and refurbishment of schools, restoring hospitals and supporting Yemen’s health care sector, rehabilitating utility facilities, including power plants, redeveloping the roads infrastructure, and providing local police with training. In these three and a half years, UAE assistance to Yemen has amounted to $4.91 billion, reaching over 17 million Yemenis, including 11 million children and 3.2 million women.
In 2017, funds were also provided to the United Nations and other international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The vast majority of aid distributed through the UN plan has been directed to northern governorates such as Sana’a, Taiz, Hodeidah and other northern provinces, in accordance with the policies and priorities of these organisations.
Assistance to Yemen amounted to $2.13 billion in 2018 alone, from which $500 million was allocated to support the UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen, marking the UAE the second largest donor, following Saudi Arabia. This year, the UAE has also ranked first in the world in terms of emergency humanitarian direct assistance to the Yemeni people.
Rehabilitating the country’s basic infrastructure such as airports in Aden, Al Rayyan and Socotra, as well as seaports in Aden, Mukalla and Socotra, has been a priority in the UAE’s aid policy to Yemen. The aid has also been used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 230 schools and the rebuilding and maintenance of 55 hospitals and medical centres.
In terms of power supplies, seventeen
power plants have been constructed, rebuilt and maintained, including a $100 million 750-megawatt power plant in Aden, to help to meet the country’s electricity deficit. Efforts to improve the supply of safe drinking water, a key to the prevention of the spreading of diseases like cholera, have included the refurbishment of ten water plants and networks with 80 pumps and four sewerage treatment plants. 250 freshwater dams and wells have been built or dug, along with 23 water stations and reservoirs.
In Hodeidah governorate, an additional $30 million has been allocated for refurbishment and repair of the infrastructure in liberated areas, including work on ports to allow fishermen to resume their activities, with consequent benefits both on employment and on the availability of fresh fish in the markets. The first port to resume operations, earlier this year, was that of Al Khokha.
The UAE aid in Yemen has also seen a focus on developing a healthy, cohesive, and stable environment, with the vital health, community development and education sectors receiving major attention. —