CAIRO: Yemen appealed to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to call for international aid to fund the severely undeveloped areas and help the people who are affected by the conflict between the government and the Houthi rebels. "[Yemen] is calling on international communities to provide aid. [Due to the] situation there, [the aid] will cover many areas including food, shelter, education, health, and so on, Noeman AlSayyad, regional communications advisor of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States told Daily News Egypt. Helen Clark, UNDP administrator, said in a statement that the UNDP will work with all parties to support the recovery and development of the region affected by the conflict. She expressed her concern about the humanitarian situation in the affected region in northern Yemen, especially for some 250,000 people displaced by the conflict. Clark, who is also the chair of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), added that she hoped that the international community would react positively to the ceasefire by providing urgently needed resources in response to the humanitarian needs caused by the conflict and to allow early recovery from the conflict to begin. The humanitarian community in Yemen, including the United Nations, issued a Humanitarian Response Appeal for 2010 for support to life-saving humanitarian assistance and early recovery efforts in aid of the affected civilian population, according to the statement. Three key strategic priorities have been identified to guide humanitarian action in 2010: Provide life- and livelihood-saving humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable populations affected by manmade and natural disasters; address protracted humanitarian and recovery needs, including emergency levels of malnutrition countrywide and post-emergency needs in Sa'ada and Hadramout governorates; and finally, strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors and of key Government counterparts involved in service and assistance delivery. "We are working with the Yemeni government to develop these areas; we are appealing to communities to send aid to Yemen, AlSayyad said. By Feb. 21, donations included $13,623,978 from the United Arab Emirates, $763,766 from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), $721,501 from Germany, and $88,350 from individuals and organizations, according to UNDP financial tracking service. "Despite the ceasefire, the situation is still tense, because the conditions of the ceasefire are not met yet, Emad Gad, international relations expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told Daily News Egypt. "The Yemeni government set six conditions, he continued, "remove mines, open the roads, release prisoners, and so on. However, none of these conditions were met, so the Yemeni army won't be able to take over some places. "Ceasing fire along with meeting these conditions or at least compromising and meeting some conditions would be good. But in general the situation there is still tense, and many citizens there are suffering as a result of this conflict. The armed conflict escalated in August 2009 between the government and the Houthi rebels in the north, which expanded to include tribal and international actors. The humanitarian situation rapidly deteriorated as tens of thousands of civilians was uprooted, adding to those already displaced by previous rounds of fighting, according to UNDP Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP): Humanitarian Response Plan 2010 for Yemen. In the early aftermath, it was estimated that up to 175,000 people were displaced, many of them for a second or third time. An estimated 48 percent of households in Yemen are food-insecure, and half of all children are chronically malnourished.
