Saudi Arabia announces more than $200 million in UN aid funding to Yemen
(CNN)Saudi Arabia has signed a series of deals to provide more than $200 million in funding to United Nations aid agencies operating in Yemen, just days after a CNN investigation highlighted a crisis in aid funding for the war-stricken nation.
The investigation revealed that support pledged to UN agencies by Saudi Arabia for Yemen had more than halved in 2020, falling from more than $1 billion to just $500 million this year. Of this amount, the UN told CNN only $23 million had so far come through its appeal.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) announced the additional Saudi funding in a televised statement Friday.
"Today, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), signed three important agreements with UN organizations, namely the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNHCR for a total of $204 million," said KSrelief's Supervisor General, Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah.
"The amount was pledged by the Kingdom to support the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan 2020, and the Kingdom hopes that these UN organizations will do their utmost to implement these programs as soon as possible," he added.
The $204 million in funding announced by KSrelief on Friday will form part of the $500 million originally pledged by the Kingdom during a conference hosted by the United Nations and Saudi Arabia in June of this year, $300 million of which was promised to UN agencies.
The funds announced Friday will all go toward the UN Humanitarian Response Plan, with the lion's share -- $138 million -- allocated to the WFP, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
A further $46 million has been allocated to WHO and $20 million to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, leaving $94 million of the $300 million pledged to UN agencies to be finalized, OCHA said.
Kuwait also pledged $20 million at a high-level UN meeting on Yemen held Thursday but it is not yet clear how the funds will be allocated, according to OCHA.
"We welcome these developments and continue to urge all donors to fulfill their pledges and increase their support, given the increasingly desperate situation on the ground," an OCHA spokeswoman said.
