November 12, 2015•Update: November 12, 2015
SANAA, Yemen
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday that 26 people in Yemen had been killed -- including 18 on Socotra Island -- by cyclones “Chapala” and “Megh”, which recently pounded the country.
According to UN Spokesman Stephen Dujjaric, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners are currently distributing high-energy biscuits to some 25,000 effected people in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and its partners are carrying out relief efforts in Yemen’s Shabwah province, where around 2,700 people have received assistance -- including tents -- along with another 2,500 people in Hadramaut province.
Dujarric, however, said the humanitarian aid was meeting only a "fraction" of the affected population’s total needs.
Even before the arrival of the twin cyclones this week and last, war-torn Yemen had stood on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe.
The country has remained in turmoil since September of last year, when the Shia Houthi militant group overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.
In March, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began an extensive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains in Yemen and restoring the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Since Riyadh launched its air campaign, at least 2,600 Yemeni civilians have been killed and more than 5,000 injured, while the number of internally displaced people in the country has risen to some 2.3 million, according to UN figures.
