UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The United Nations yesterday, released 20 million U.S. dollars in emergency funds for 270,000 people in Yemen, including those newly displaced by airstrikes, a UN spokesman said.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, allocated the money from the Central Emergency Response Fund, to support the humanitarian relief for people in Marib, al-Jawf and Hadramout, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
“It will also help to scale up operational capacities to support the response, including humanitarian air transport,” Haq told reporters in a briefing. A week ago, three airstrikes in quick succession by the Saudi-led coalition hit a detention facility in the northern city of Saada run by the Houthi rebels.
He said, staff from the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen were in Saada this week, collecting information following the airstrikes. The team verifying civilian casualties said, it received reports of 91 detainees killed.
“The information they have collected paints a chaotic and desperate picture, after the prison in Saada was struck,” Haq said.
“The Human Rights Office urges the Saudi-led coalition to ensure that its investigation is in line with international standards and is transparent, independent and impartial,” he said.
Shortly after the attack, an official of Saada’s local authority said, “The airstrike completely destroyed the prison building.”
Saada is one of the main strongholds of the Houthis, fighting for years the Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
