(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The UK government announced here on Sunday 20 million pounds (USD 30.3 million) in urgent aid to Yemen in order to help in the alleviation of poverty and shortage of food.
UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening set out a package of urgent support from the UK including 20 million pounds in new life saving aid.
She highlighted, in a press statement, the scale of the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which the UN has warned is now on the brink of famine, urging the international community to act before it is too late.
The lack of international action on the crisis in Yemen shows worrying parallels with the delayed response to the famine in Somalia that killed more than a quarter of a million people, Greening warned.
The 20 million pounds in funding committed by the International Development Secretary today takes the total committed by the UK in response to the crisis to 75 million pounds. Only Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US have pledged more.
The new funding will go to key partner agencies including the World Food Program, UNICEF and NGOs operating on the ground via UN OCHA's (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund.
The support will provide the most vulnerable people, including those forced to flee their homes, with life-saving food, water and sanitation, nutrition and healthcare.
Greening also announced that the UK would co-host an international meeting on the crisis in New York tomorrow (28 September) to agree a rapid and concerted response to the crisis from the international community.
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