Saudi Arabia and UAE announce $500 million aid program for Yemen

Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced the launching of a $500 million initiative to address the humanitarian situation in Yemen on Tuesday.

The programme was announced by Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabi'ah, general supervisor of Saudi Arabia's King Salman Center for Humanitarian Relief and Works, at a joint press conference in Riyadh with Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are launching the 'Imdad' initiative to provide US $500 million of additional support to help fulfill the most pressing humanitarian needs in the food and nutrition sectors through the United Nations, and international, regional and local organizations," Al-Rabi'ah added.

This comes as an extension of the support provided by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the 2018 UN Humanitarian Response Plan, which reached a total amount of $1.25 billion, in addition to what was provided through direct humanitarian intervention from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, the UAE Red Crescent, and other countries of the Coalition, he said.

The amount is in addition to the total $18 billion the coalition countries contributed towards humanitarian aid for Yemen since March 2015.