OFID approves grant to ICRC to support aid efforts in Yemen

Vienna, Austria, April 14, 2016. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has approved an emergency assistance grant to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to support its ongoing humanitarian operations in Yemen.

The conflict in Yemen has forced more than two million people to flee their homes and claimed more than 6,000 lives. Over 30,000 people, including women and children, have been wounded.

With the country already suffering from decades of conflict and under-development, its communities and structures are ill-equipped to handle the magnitude of needs and the scale of damage to public facilities. A large segment of the population faces increasing difficulties in obtaining services and items necessary for their survival.

The ICRC is one of the few international organizations present across Yemen, with offices in Sana'a, Sa'ada, Taiz and Aden, having helped more than three million Yemenis in 2015. The ICRC has requested OFID’s financial assistance to help in the procurement, transportation, storage and handling of urgently-needed goods such as kitchen sets, buckets, tarpaulins, hygiene parcels, sleeping mats and blankets.

OFID’s US$300,000 grant is expected to cover the imminent needs of more than 2,600 households in distress, as well as many other victims of the conflict. Last year OFID extended a US$250,000 grant to ICRC for its humanitarian activities in Yemen.