Emergency
Crisis in Yemen
Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, is in the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis that only continues to deteriorate. As many as 22 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 17 million people are now considered food insecure.
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The Situation
The humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to deteriorate with fuel shortages, rising food prices and a severe lack of basic services- making daily survival a painful struggle for millions. The conflict between a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf countries and the Government of Yemen against the Ansar-Allah movement (also known as the Houthis), escalated in March 2015, causing more than 54,000 deaths and injuries.
Over three million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the bombing and fighting. Nearly 22 million people – 75 per cent of Yemen's population – need emergency aid.
Yemen is facing the world’s worst ever recorded cholera outbreak, which has spread to nearly every corner of the war-ravaged country. More than 1 million cases have been reported and over 2,200 people have died since the start of the epidemic. Many more are now at risk, already weakened by hunger and the effects of the ongoing war.
What is Oxfam Doing?
We are delivering essential aid in the north and south of the country and have reached 3 million people across the frontlines, since July 2015. In response to the cholera outbreak, we have directly supported more than 430,000 people from four governorates in coordination with other international agencies.
Help has included:
- Cash payments to more than 270,000 people to help families displaced by the conflict to buy food.
- Clean water and sanitation services for more than one million people, including in hard-to-reach areas of the country, through providing water by truck, repairing water systems, delivering filters and jerry cans, as well as building latrines.
- Conducting public health campaigns to raise awareness about the measures individuals can take at the household level to prevent and treat cholera.
Oxfam in Yemen
Oxfam has been in Yemen for more than 30 years, working with government authorities, as well as civil society organizations, to improve water and sanitation services, and livelihoods of thousands of people living in poverty.
- Since 2012, Oxfam has rehabilitated water systems in 41 rural communities in western Yemen, providing more than 125,000 vulnerable people with safe drinking water.
- Oxfam responded to the 2014 fuel crisis with the distribution of water filters to 3,300 vulnerable households and a cash transfer to an additional 1,000 households in western Yemen.
- In the north in Sa'ada governorate, where years of conflict have destroyed infrastructure and created significant access constraints, Oxfam is working on repairing and installing water sources, and has reached 58,000 people. We have also delivered vital water and sanitation services to communities in Aden and Abyan in the south.
- Together with partners, Oxfam works to empower women economically, socially, and politically to have a say in decision making at all levels.
- Planning for the longer term, Oxfam is piloting three solar pump drinking water systems, reaching more than 20,000 people in three communities.
Your donation today will help provide timely, appropriate humanitarian responses where the need is greatest.
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Your donation today will help provide timely, appropriate humanitarian responses where the need is greatest.