OFID approves US$1 million in emergency grants to Indonesia, Yemen

October 8, 2018, Vienna, Austria. OFID – the OPEC Fund for International Development – has approved two emergency aid grants totaling US$1 million in support of relief efforts in Indonesia and Yemen. The grants will be channeled through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), respectively. 

A US$400,000 grant to the IFRC will support the delivery of shelter and immediate basic needs by the Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia) to victims of an earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, just weeks after a series of deadly earthquakes hit the island of Lombok. 

The epicenter of the 7.4 magnitude Sulawesi earthquake was in Donggala Regency, which has a population of close to 300,000 people. According to the latest government reports, the disaster has claimed more than 1,500 lives and over 2,500 people have been injured. Numbers expected to rise.

In early August, OFID extended a US$400,000 grant to help bolster relief efforts for those affected by the Lombok earthquake.
                            

A US$600,000 grant to the ICRC will help finance ongoing aid operations in Yemen, a country that is enduring one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world. Armed conflict and violence has resulted in millions of individuals being displaced and thousands of civilians being killed or wounded.  

Deteriorating conditions in Yemen are slowing relief efforts. Against this backdrop, the ICRC approached OFID for financial assistance to purchase and distribute food for around 40,000 people. Since the beginning of the current crisis, OFID has extended two prior emergency aid grants totaling US$950,000 in support of ICRC’s operations.