Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant to the Administrator Sarah Charles, in the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, announced nearly $291 million in additional humanitarian assistance from the American people for Yemen during a virtual high-level side event on the margins of the 76th UN General Assembly. This funding will provide lifesaving aid for Yemenis enduring one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, caused by nearly seven years of war and compounded by a deepening economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of this new funding, USAID is providing nearly $209 million. This new assistance will support humanitarian partners in Yemen in supplying urgent food and nutrition assistance, including additional support that will enable the UN World Food Program to continue feeding 11.5 million people every month. With this funding, USAID partners will also contribute safe drinking water and health services, disseminate information about COVID-19 and how to stay healthy in at-risk communities, and distribute basic necessities, such as shelter supplies and hygiene items, to help people stave off disease.
Partners will also provide support to help families earn an income and rebuild their livelihoods, cash assistance to allow families to purchase what they need most and support the local economy, and protection support, including gender-based violence prevention and response, as well as psychosocial services. This assistance will also provide additional support to the UN’s logistics operation, which underpins the entire humanitarian operation by transporting humanitarian supplies and personnel to and throughout Yemen.
The United States remains the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance in Yemen. The United States, including today’s announcement, has provided nearly $3.9 billion to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, who have been afflicted by the ongoing crisis that began seven years ago. The United States welcomes the generosity of other donors who joined the United States in pledging additional assistance, and echoed the calls for more donors to urgently increase funding to enable the humanitarian community to respond at the scale needed to prevent Yemen from slipping into famine.
The United States reiterated that aid alone cannot reverse the crisis in Yemen, and called on all parties to the conflict to bring an end to the fighting to ensure that humanitarian needs do not continue to worsen.
For the latest updates on USAID’s humanitarian assistance in Yemen, visit: https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/yemen