Brussels, 20/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a decision announced on 20 September, the European Commission is to allocate additional humanitarian aid of €5 million for the vulnerable in Yemen, whether those displaced internally or refugees from the Horn of Africa. This will take its assistance in the country to €20 million in 2011.
The funding, from the budget of the Commission's humanitarian aid wing ECHO, will be used to provide food and nutritional aid for the people of the south, who are suffering as a result of the conflict in the country and all those who have been hit by the drought, which has increased food insecurity and malnutrition rates in some parts of the country. Some of the aid will be used by ECHO's humanitarian aid partner organisations on the ground to provide drinking water, primary health care, tents and basic household utensils.
The funding decision follows on from a needs assessment carried out by ECHO experts in August, which reported a worsening of the humanitarian situation.
A humanitarian office was opened in Sanaa by European International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva in January 2011. Commission experts are continuing to monitor the situation closely. (AN/transl.rt)