UN releases $2mn emergency funds for Yemen

United Nations, Jan 29 (IANS) The UN has released $20 million in emergency funds for 270,000 people in Yemen, including those who were displaced by the recent airstrikes, a spokesman said.UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths allocated the money from the Central Emergency Response Fund to support the humanitarian relief for people in Marib, al-Jawf and Hadramout, Xinhua news agency quoted Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying."It will also help to scale up operational capacities to support the response, including humanitarian air transport," Haq told reporters in a regular briefing. A week ago, three airstrikes in quick succession by the Saudi-led coalition hit a detention facility in the northern city of Saada run by the Houthi rebels.He said staff from the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen were in Saada this week collecting information following the airstrikes.The team verifying civilian casualties said it received reports of 91 detainees killed."The information they have collected paints a chaotic and desperate picture after the prison in Saada was struck," Haq said."The Human Rights Office urges the Saudi-led coalition to ensure that its investigation is in line with international standards and is transparent, independent and impartial," he said.Saada is one of the main strongholds of the Iran-backed Houthis fighting for years Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
--IANS ksk/

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