Yemenis launch campaign to uncover fate of humanitarian aid funds
SANAA, April 22 (YPA) – Human rights activists have launched an online campaign on social media platforms to uncover the fate of funds received by international organizations operating in Yemen from donors.
Journalist Safia Mahdi told the Yemen Press Agency that “the campaign calls for the organizations named to be held accountable on lists published a few days ago, revealing that these organizations have received millions of dollars from the United Nations.”
Al-Mahdi continued by asking “where did the sums go?”
She noted that these organizations should be held accountable, especially “local donors who beg using name of children and women, while the situation of these children and women is still miserable”.
“Over 20 million Yemenis live in difficult circumstances, most of them under threat of famine,” according to the United Nations, as a result of the coalition’s four-year war, statistical reports confirm that “organizations received $23 billion in donor relief assistance.”
“The campaign should set goals, including pressure on the United Nations organizations to change their policy on aid and begin to channel funds towards sustainable projects that create jobs,” Farouk Al-Kamali tweeted.
“The biggest corruption in Yemen’s recent history is the corruption of aid organizations,” said activist Samir Salahi, who accused organizations of stealing billions of dollars “of which not even 5 % has reached the Yemeni community.”
The World Food Program (WFP) has announced that prices in Yemen have risen madly so that the price of a small meal of beans is worth $60. However, the activists consider this a lie, accusing the UN program of defrauding the money of the poor and war victims.
“Twenty billion dollars worth of oil and gas exports of six years before the war were spent on salaries, making roads and constructing projects. Today there are no salaries, no projects, no food,” Abdallah Ismail, a pro-coalition journalist from al-Ghad channel said.
By distributing the amount received by the organizations within four years to all Yemeni people, including officials and merchants, the per capita would be 19.2 dollars per month.
But the reality of the suffering of Yemenis proves the corruption of those organizations, some of them giving only a food basket per family, with a price not exceeding $20.
E.M