Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The Austrian contribution aims at contributing to alleviate the suffering of the conflict affected population in Yemen.

Expected results

To help vulnerable households meet their immediate needs, the Yemeni Red Crescent and the ICRC will distribute emergency relief in the form of food, nutritional supplements, household essentials and cash. Several thousand households will be given food or cash in exchange for working in community-based projects. Where security conditions permit, the ICRC will help households resume or improve their livelihoods, through veterinary services and by distributing farming and fishing tools.

Target group / Beneficiaries

The ICRC with the assistance of the YRC aims at supporting approximately 87.500 persons in vulnerable households, including IDPs and those with physically disabled members, in improving their income and/or food production through vaccination and other veterinary services, carried out with the agriculture ministry. In addition, the ICRC/YRC will make available seed, fertilizer and farming tools and fishing equipment.

Activities

The ICRC - in corporation with the Yemeni Red Crescent (YRC) - will distribute food and nutritional supplements, will engage in food-for-work projects and make available cash in exchange for work to help IDPs, returnees and residents to meet their immediate needs. To help vulnerable households meet their immediate needs, the Yemeni Red Crescent and the ICRC will also distribute emergency relief in the form of food, nutritional supplements, household essentials and cash.

Context

Numerous armed conflicts and other situations of violence are taking place throughout Yemen; heavy fighting, shelling and air strikes continue in many areas. Hostilities between a Saudi Arabian-led military coalition and the Houthis, which began in March 2015, have reportedly escalated after UN-mediated negotiations between the parties involved collapsed in July 2016. Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, the Islamic State group and other armed groups are active in different parts of the country. The structure of the government is still unclear, and various groups have laid claim to or governed certain geographical areas.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the violence. Thousands have been reportedly killed or injured, and millions displaced. IDPs and residents alike have difficulties in obtaining basic commodities and essential services as a result of damages on public infrastructure and restrictions on the movement of goods and people. Despite the violence, migrants use the country as a transit point to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Many of them are reportedly arrested upon reaching Yemen.

Allegations of violations of IHL are widespread: children are reportedly recruited into fighting forces, for example. Air strikes and other attacks have left public infrastructure, including health facilities and schools, damaged and non-functional. Parties to the conflict also prevent the passage of medical personnel and supplies. Many areas are contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war. Goods and basic services are scarce or difficult to obtain; employment opportunities and possibilities for starting/resuming livelihood activities are very limited.

Many people are unable to contact their relatives or are unaware of their fate; they include migrants, who are also vulnerable to abuses along migration routes. First responders and the authorities struggle to recover and identify the remains of people killed in the fighting.