WHO appeals $392 million to provide health service to 12 million Yemenis

The World Health Organization on Sunday called on international donors to raise $392 million to provide health services necessary to save the lives of millions of people in Yemen in 2023, an increase of more than $250 million over the previous appeal launched by the organization in late January.

“Yemen needs urgent and significant support from international donors and other partners, to avoid a possible actual collapse of its health system, which needs new funding in the amount of $392 million, to ensure the continued functioning of overstretched health facilities,” Adham Abdel Moneim, WHO representative in Yemen, said in a statement. and providing basic services to 12.9 million of the most vulnerable people.

The statement was issued on the eve of the donors’ conference organized by Sweden and Switzerland at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with the aim of mobilizing funding for the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan amounting to $4.3 billion to help 17.3 million people in Yemen.

The statement stressed that “the high-level donors’ conference to confront the humanitarian crisis in Yemen tomorrow comes at a crucial moment to show the extent of the international community’s commitment to helping millions of Yemenis who suffer severely from diseases, malnutrition and trauma.”

He added,  “In 2023 so far, the funds that have been pledged for the WHO-led health cluster are equivalent to only 3.5 percent of the total $392 million needed to provide basic services to millions of people from the most vulnerable groups.” Vulnerable people targeted by the United Nations humanitarian response plan for this year in Yemen.

He stated that among them, “up to 540,000 children under the age of five are facing severe acute malnutrition, with an immediate risk of death.”

Abdel Moneim warned that unless this huge funding gap is closed, the international organization will not be able to continue its work in Yemen.

E.M