UAE donates $136 mn urgent food aid to Yemen

June 3, 2012

(AFP)

DUBAI — The UAE on Sunday announced food aid worth 500 million dirhams ($136 million) for Yemen where aid groups say around 44 percent of the population do not have enough to eat, state news agency WAM reported.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan "has approved allocating 500 million dirhams to buy food and distribute it urgently to the brotherly Yemeni people," WAM said.

The move is to "alleviate the suffering and ensure the availability of basic needs" to enable Yemenis to achieve "better security, stability and prosperity," said the statement.

The food items include "rice, sugar, cooking oil, baby milk, canned food and other basic items of daily use," it said.

Last month, seven aid groups warned diplomats that Yemen was on the brink of a "catastrophic food crisis."

At least 10 million people, some 44 percent of the population, do not get "enough food to eat", they said, adding that one in three children was "severely malnourished."

On May 21, the European Union unblocked an extra five million euros ($6.2 million) for Yemen to help fight mounting malnutrition in what it said was a "desperate" food crisis affecting almost half of the population.

The Commission has already mobilised 20 million euros ($24.9 million) in humanitarian aid for Yemen this year, directed at increasing and improving access to clean water, supporting feeding programmes, developing cash-for-work schemes and providing cash grants for 200,000 people.

Deadly anti-regime protests swept Yemen last year, finally forcing president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February after 33 years in power.

The political crisis has left the country's economy in tatters and aggravated the dire security situation, with Al-Qaeda militants launching a wave of attacks in the mostly lawless south since Saleh's departure.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, with more than 40 percent of people living below the poverty line.

Troops, insurgents battle in centre of southern Yemen city

ADEN | Sun Jun 3, 2012

 (Reuters) - Yemeni troops battled insurgents in the central streets of the southern provincial capital Zinjibar on Sunday, killing six and losing two of their own men, as part of a U.S.-supported drive to recapture territory held by the al Qaeda-linked fighters.

Officials and residents also said troops killed five Islamist fighters in clashes near the western edge of Jaar, another insurgent-controlled town in Abyan province about 30 km (20 miles) from Zinjibar.

The army launched the offensive last month aimed at retaking southern towns seized by Islamists during an uprising against Yemen's long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh that saw the military split into warring factions last year.

The United States, which helped engineer Saleh's replacement by his deputy in February, is backing the offensive and has stepped up its campaign of drone strike assassinations of alleged al Qaeda members it says plot attacks from Yemen.

It has also sent dozens of military trainers and stepped up aid to a country it sees as being in the frontline of its war on anti-American Islamist militants.

The loss of Zinjibar would be a strategic blow to the insurgents and bolster the morale of the army, which managed to seize parts of the city outskirts last week.

In Sunday's fighting, troops killed six insurgents and wounded several others in the centre of Zinjibar after the militants attacked a position the army set up after moving into the town, a military official said. Two soldiers were killed.

Local officials and residents said troops killed five Islamist fighters near the western edge of Jaar, also held by a group calling itself Ansar al-Sharia.

Both towns fell under the control of the group last year, when some of Saleh's forces in the region were directed against mass protests calling for an end to his 33-year rule.

Ansar al-Sharia has an undefined relationship with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has plotted abortive attacks abroad from Yemen, including one that U.S. officials said targeted an airliner before it was thwarted in April.

Both have claimed responsibility for attacks on Yemeni military targets, including a suicide bombing last month that killed around 100 soldiers in the capital Sanaa.

The United States wants President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to reunify a military that split between Saleh's foes and allies, including his son and nephew, and focus it against AQAP.

Separately, the deputy governor and local commander of Central Security, which has a counter-terrorism brief, survived an assassination attempt by gunmen who attacked their car in the southern Dhaleh province, officials said.

President Hadi meets International Humanitarian delegation

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, June 2, 2012- President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi discussed with the International Humanitarian Commission delegation the natural of the cooperation between Yemen and non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

During the meeting, President Hadi pointed to the 2011 crisis's repercussions at the security, political and economic levels, adding that crisis entered the process of the solution after singing the Gulf initiative and its Executive Mechanism and forming national collation government headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Ba Saundwa, which reached to several solutions.

The President also pointed out to the security and economic problems which are remaining the difficult crisis, saying not solving that the two problems, the political crisis is still continued.

Addressing the Humanitarian delegation, "The human side in Yemen is linked to security and economic aspect."

President Hadi also touched to what Yemen has suffered from over the past years, such as the internal wars and the social, in addition to al-Qaeda terrorist operations in some provinces in the south particularly in the province of Abyan, which target the security and stability there.

The president pointed out that there is another problem concerning nearly 6 million as well as half a million of Youths who graduated from universities and higher institutes and still unemployed, saying that most of that problem in most cases may lead to terror behavior.

President Hadi stressed the need of the international community's support for Yemen throughout providing all forms of aid in order to overcome the current situation, which if it continues it would have worse affect on local level and regional and international.

The president talked about the refugee problem, saying "Along with local displaced, there is also the problem of African refugees, which Yemen can't handle them together alone without cooperation from the international community.''

He said that the economic problem represents 75 per cent of the current crisis, demanding the international community to adopt a clear strategy based on a five-year development plan aims to assist the economic and agricultural sectors in the country.

For his part, the international humanitarian delegation confirmed their international organization's readiness to support Yemen to get out of its current crisis.

Yemeni prime minister calls for sanctions

June 2, 2012  

SANAA, Yemen, June 2 (UPI) -- Yemeni Prime Minister Mohamed Basindawa called on world powers to intervene and sanction those who impede Yemen's move toward democracy, officials said.

In a speech at the Partners Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations this week in Turkey, Basindawa said the international community must stand by the Yemeni people, the Yemen Post said Saturday.

Despite the signature of a power-transfer deal in November 2011. Yemen has been plagued by internal political conflicts jeopardizing its transition period with remnants of the regime refusing to comply with the directives of President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

In its latest session on Yemen, the Security Council warned on Wednesday it would act against those who hinder the country's progress.

The World Bank's role in Yemen's transition period and the need for CSO engagement

1 June 2012

BIC outlines the World Bank's current activities in Yemen and proposes that civil society engagement is necessary now more than ever.

Throughout 2011, Yemenis fought for their right to a democratic country free of corruption and dictatorship. The country underwent an extremely painful and difficult year in which the regime’s forces fought the rebellion, and used the withholding of basic services such as electricity as political pawns in the fight to retain power. Meanwhile, international institutions and bilateral donors halted aid to Yemen either in protest of the regime’s actions, or due to their inability to monitor how the government was spending the funds. The World Bank was one such donor and in July 2011 released a statement announcing that all disbursements to Yemen would be temporarily suspended.

The Bank restarted operations in January 2012 in a limited way, but since the February election which passed the political reins to Abdrabbo Al-Hadi, the Bank’s role in the transitional period has become increasingly clear and strong. The DC-based institution may not be the biggest lender in the game - indeed the Friends of Yemen conference that took place on May 23rd proved that countries like Saudi Arabia will continue to lend impressive sums to Yemen – but it certainly deserves our attention.

Yemen is considered one of the poorer countries in the Bank’s portfolio, and as such the Bank provides grants to the country as opposed to loans. Historically however, even though the amounts that the Bank gives to Yemen are not very substantial relative to some other Middle East and North Africa countries like Egypt or Morocco, Yemen has not been able to absorb all the money that the Bank has given it. Moreover, certain projects have had more success than others with respect to implementation and results. Consequently, the Bank plans to re-evaluate and restructure its existing portfolio in the country keeping the “good” projects and canceling others that were not seeing success. This is unusual for the Bank which ordinarily prefers to keep the money flowing out of its door, and it is curious as to whether this type of sensible decision would have been made had it been loans we were talking about rather than grants.

Beyond its project portfolio, the World Bank has been leading efforts on a social and economic assessment alongside the European Union, the United Nations, and the Islamic Development Bank, to determine the impact of the past year’s political crisis on the economic and social condition of Yemen. Moreover, the Bank is providing technical assistance to the government on its economic transition plan. Very importantly, the Bank will be coordinating and co-chairing a donor conference that will be taking place in the coming months.

While Yemeni civil society was unfortunately not invited to be a part of the Friends of Yemen conference, a number of groups have asked the Bank to give space to civil society at the upcoming donor conference. It is yet to be seen how the Bank will respond to this request but the outlook is positive. This is after all not a novel concept; civil society and the private sector, for that matter, have been present at several donor conferences that the Bank has coordinated in the past, including in Uganda and Nepal.

The involvement of civil society in activities being discussed and proposed by international organizations and by the government of Yemen is one of absolute necessity. Some say that a revolution took place in Yemen, but we could also consider that the revolution is still in motion and as such, bringing those voices to the table would be useful at any moment in time but bringing them in now is particularly critical. This is the moment when the blueprints for this country's future are being drawn up; the constitution is being drafted, the laws are being made, and the economic plans which could affect every one of Yemen's 24 million people are being developed. These plans can not be made behind closed doors - all stakeholders should be involved. While these documents are in their budding stages, civil society is not. There is a lot that Yemeni civil society has to offer, but there need to be the opportunities to do so.

In order for there to be meaningful engagement, timely information and the availability of space is key. This is what the World Bank and other international institutions can and should do. This is also what they should encourage the government of Yemen to do. On the other hand, Yemeni civil society also has to step up and be ready to engage; ready to read and analyze that information and ready to participate in that space.