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UNICEF Yemen Humanitarian Situation Report: 1 - 28 February 2022 [EN/AR]

Countries
Yemen
Sources
UNICEF
Publication date

Highlights

  • A total of 432,379 children under the age of five have been screened for malnutrition since the beginning of the year. Out of these, 21,598 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were identified and admitted in Outpatient Treatment Programmes (OTPs).

  • UNICEF and partners implemented the first round of the polio vaccination campaign in 12 southern governorates from 19 to 24 February, reaching a total of 2,456,114 children under the age of ten, with 90 per cent receiving the trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV).

  • In February, UNICEF continued supporting the delivery of fuel to 36 Local Water and Sanitation Corporations (LWSCs) across 17 governorates in order to sustain the provision of safe water supply for approximately 2.48 million people.

  • UNICEF, in collaboration with UNFPA and WFP, reached 7,376 newly displaced households through the distribution of Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) kits containing essential hygiene items, food, family basic hygiene kits and female dignity kits.

Situation in Numbers
(OCHA, 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview)

11.3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance

20.7 million people in need (OCHA, 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan)

2 million children internally displaced (IDPs) (UNICEF, 2021 Yemen Humanitarian Action for Children)

Funding Overview and Partnerships

The Yemen Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) which is currently aligned to the 2021 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP), appeals for $484.4 million in 2022. UNICEF’s humanitarian programmes are planned for nationwide reach targeting populations in areas with the most acute needs, and the appeal integrates the COVID-19 response into programmes planned within the HAC. As of 28 February 2022, UNICEF received a total of $23.6 million against the 2022 HAC appeal and a total of $63.8 million was carried forward from 2021, leaving a funding gap of $397 million, or 81 per cent of the total amount required to continue UNICEF’s life-saving work in Yemen. During the reporting period, contributions were received from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, the Government of Japan, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, the Swiss National Committee for UNICEF and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany. Despite these generous contributions, critical funding gaps for the response are emerging from quarter two of 2022.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

Eight years into the conflict, 20.7 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance. Over 50 districts across Yemen are directly affected by active frontlines, leading to the displacement of over 4.2 million people since the beginning of the conflict, of which 79 per cent have been children and women.

Conflict continued to escalate during the month of February, increasing humanitarian needs across the country. A total of 16.2 million people3 need food assistance and an increasing proportion of the population is coping with emergency levels of hunger. Children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) are at a higher risk of death without receiving therapeutic feeding assistance. Children continue to suffer from common childhood illnesses including pneumonia and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) as well as Vaccine Derived Polio (VDP) outbreaks. An estimated five million women and girls of childbearing age, and 1.7 million pregnant and lactating women (PLW) have limited to no access to reproductive health services. Persistent fuel shortages drove up the prices of food and other basic commodities. Fuel shortages are also directly impacting the functionality of critical water and sanitation services, as most of the water and sanitation corporations rely on fuel either for pumping water or pumping sewage and wastewater. Yemen’s economy shrank by more than half since 2015, with over 80 per cent of people living below the poverty line. According to the results of the 2021 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)4 , in Yemen, more than half of the total population (51.6 per cent) is living in multidimensional poverty.

A total number of 35 cases of circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Viruses Type 1 (cVDPV1) were reported in Yemen between June 2018 and December 2021. In 2022, no cases have been reported yet. As of 5 March 2022, 11,774 cases of COVID-19 were officially confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic, with 2,135 associated deaths (18.1 per cent case fatality rate). Almost all the cases were reported in Hadramout, Aden, Abyan, Lahj, Al Dhalea, Shabwah, Al Maharah, Taiz, Socotra and Marib governorates. No cases have been reported from the northern governorates. The COVID-19 vaccination campaign continued in the southern governorates. As of 28 February, a total of 397,352 people in the south were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 241,516 people were partially vaccinated.