The UAE is continuing with its relief efforts to help suffering Yemenis. Towards that end, it has yet again sent off humanitarian aid comprising 16 tons of food that would aid 1200 families in the Al Alili camp in the Al Khokha district of Yemen's Hodeidah province, as part of the second phase of relief efforts in 2020.

This has been conducted by UAE's humanitarian arm, the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC. The locals are continuing to express their appreciation to the UAE and the ERC for the humanitarian support that has been reaching the displaced and needy on a periodical basis, every 21 days, for the past four years.

 Since April 2015 till February 2020, the aid provided by the UAE to Yemen has amounted to over US$6 billion according to official figures shared by Emirates Red Crescent.  The consistent humanitarian assistance has gone unabated despite Covid-19 lockdown and civil war conditions.  It includes rehabilitation of schools and hospitals, securing energy and rebuilding airports and ports, expansion of roads and building housing units, along with undertaking projects aimed at ensuring livelihood for multiple segments of Yemenis. These would primarily include widows, orphans and people of determination.

UAE has also provided financial aid to the tune of $2.95 billion to support public service programmes of essential importance to broad segments of Yemeni society, especially in the areas of health and education.

Strangely, UAE has gone out of its way to even curb the spread of commutable diseases before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the whole world. Yemeni residents have benefitted from their technological knowhow.  Between the year 2016-2018, UAE launched large scale campaign to combat the epidemic in 19 Yemeni governorates in coordination with the WHO. Two ships were dispatched loaded with anti-cholera drugs to Yemen and upto 18 million Yemenis benefitted from the UAE vaccination campaigns. 

WAM