Trump administration touts aid that meets small fraction of Yemen’s COVID-19 needs
The State Department announced more Yemen aid, but it still falls well short of the $1.3 billion the war-torn country needs to stave off the coronavirus pandemic.
The Donald Trump administration announced today that it will provide $1.7 million in humanitarian aid to “support COVID-19 response efforts and other vulnerable populations.”
But that aid accounts for less than 1% of the roughly $1.3 billion in funding that Yemen will need to battle the looming coronavirus crisis, according to an estimate provided to Al-Monitor from the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. The budget shortfall comes after the Trump administration has slashed the lion’s share of Yemeni aid and suspended all cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) throughout the world.
“Yemen needs support now — literally, right now,” the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, told Al-Monitor. “There are shortages of absolutely everything that’s needed to treat the people who are likely to become ill. There aren’t enough swabs, tests, reagents, hospital beds, ICU beds, ventilators oxygen or protective equipment. The situation is desperate.”
Grande warned Monday that the WHO likely will have to suspend — or at least significantly scale back — at least 80% of its operations in Yemen by today, largely because of the US funding cut. Acting USAID Administrator John Basra said last week that the United States is looking for alternatives to the WHO to implement Yemen aid programs.
