Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday directed the allocation of $100m in support of the efforts of the United Nations World Food Programme in Yemen for food security and to help prevent famine.
The contribution will augment the United Nations relief and urgent humanitarian programmes to alleviate the exacerbation of human tragedy in Yemen. The gesture is all the more meaningful as it came on the second day of Eid Al Adha celebrations, which is a time for showing compassion to the marginalised people wherever they are.
This timely announcement will give a much needed fillip to the international efforts to feed the war-ravaged people in Yemen who are teetering on the verge of death without food. Over five years of conflict in the country have left thousands of civilians dead and four million people displaced. Earlier this year, a World Food Programme (WFP) report said that despite extending humanitarian assistance, some 16.2 million Yemenis are without food. If the intervention of the international community stops or severely hampered, the situation is likely to deteriorate quickly, the report warned.
Malnutrition among women and children in Yemen remain among the highest in the world as some 1.2 million women and 2.3 million children requiring treatment for acute malnutrition. Of these children, 400,000 are at risk of dying without treatment, the report said, painting the appalling humanitarian situation in that country. The COVID-19 pandemic is piling more pressure on the people who are already reeling from the protracted conflict.
The economic impact of the pandemic on Yemen, struggling with poverty and devastated by an avoidable war, is threatening to be more fateful than the disease itself.
This is not the first time that Qatar comes to the aid of people suffering from the pandemic or conflicts in different parts of the world. Qatar has extended a helping hand in the fight against the pandemic to about 100 countries in the form of medical supplies, relief materials and cash assistance.
In the case of Yemen in particular, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) had completed a project in June this year to provide shelter for the internally displaced people affected by the conflict and flooding in Yemen. The project in the Abs District in Hajjah Governorate, handed over 224 housing units built at a total cost of $210,24.
In the same month, QRCS had launched an emergency health and nutritional health programme in Taiz and Sa’ada Governorates. It involved multiple health interventions, supplies, training, awareness, health equipment and staff remunerations.
Qatar’s deserves a standing ovation for its kind gestures to the people who are struggling with natural disasters and conflicts. Qatar’s leadership has always been true to the religion they follow and compassion towards fellow beings is embedded in their DNA.
