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EU announces additional 25 mln euro in humanitarian aid for Yemen

BRUSSELS, Dec 7 (KUNA) -- The European Commission announced Thursday new humanitarian aid of 25 million euro (USD 29.4 million) to support civilians in desperate need in Yemen.
This brings the total EU funding to 196.7 million euro (USD 231.6 million) since the start of the conflict in 2015, said the Commission in a statement.
"Children, women and men urgently need access to food, water and medical services in Yemen. All parties to the conflict must give priority to protecting civilians and allow humanitarian aid to get to the people. Unless all restrictions on imports of food, fuel and medical supplies are lifted immediately, Yemen will suffer the largest famine in the world in decades," warned Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.
He noted that the new aid will support the distribution of food by the World Food Programme as well as humanitarian logistical and transport capacity by the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service.
Yemen is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. 22.2 million people are now affected. This is 80 percent of the country's population. Yemen relies on commercial imports for 90 percent of its food and most of the fuel and medicines needed, said Stylianides. (end) nk.mt