Highlights
• UNICEF provided the Ministry of Health with 5.6 million doses of polio vaccines to be delivered during March. The last polio campaign has reached about 4 million children, over 487,000 of them in conflict-affected Taiz.
• To support the return of over 380,000 children to school, UNICEF and the Governorate Education Offices (GEOs) started rehabilitation of 68 affected schools in Amran, Dhamar, Ibb, Sana’a and Taiz during the reporting period. Construction and rehabilitation work in schools will benefit about 6,000 children in the coming weeks.
• Despite conflict escalation and instability, UNICEF continues to engage with the Civil Registration Authority (CRA) to promote birth registration. A total of 21,605 vulnerable children were provided with birth certificates through mobile teams.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Ten months after the escalation of the conflict in late March 2015, the humanitarian situation in Yemen remains critical. Hostilities, ground fighting and violations of international humanitarian law continue to be reported across the country, leaving little hope for improvement of the situation in the near future.
The Yemen Humanitarian Country Team estimate that the current crisis has left 21.2 million people in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance, including more than 9.9 million children. Among people in need, 19.3 million require water and sanitation assistance, 14.1 million are in need of access to healthcare, 1.3 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition, 7.4 million children are in need of protection services, and nearly 2.9 million children have education-related needs.
As a consequence of the crisis, the country has faced the drop of imports and fuel, and the rise of prices of basic goods and services. However, during January, 2016, the number of ships berthing as well as the volume of food and fuel imports into Yemen increased compared to December 2015. This has increased the availability of food and fuel in local markets, resulting in a decrease in prices. Fuel imports still remain 15 per cent lower than pre-crisis monthly requirements.
Despite the volatile security situation in several areas, access constraints and extremely challenging logistics, the humanitarian presence in Yemen has increased significantly during the last six months, from 68 to 106 organizations –according to OCHA reports. Thanks to strong relationships with local partners and using alternative mechanisms (i.e. third party monitoring, Djibouti Logistics Hub) UNICEF has managed to maintain and scale-up its activities in the field. UNICEF continues to provide support across different sectors, including, but not limited to, health and nutrition, WASH, education, child protection and social protection, for the most vulnerable children and their families.