OIC appeals for $32m Yemen aid

The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has appealed to member-countries to raise $32 million as humanitarian aid for Yemenis who have been affected by the war.
“I appeal to OIC member countries for donations to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people ,” said Ambassador Fuad Al-Madnee, adviser to the OIC secretary-general on humanitarian affairs.
Al-Madnee has been the head of OIC’s humanitarian affairs department for the last 10 years. He created the department himself.
Al-Madnee said that the donations will be used to provide food, water and medicine to Yemeni people affected by efforts to restore the legitimate Yemeni government.
He expressed the hope that a cease-fire would soon prevail so that the OIC could mobilize its resources to extend this humanitarian aid.
“The aid which the OIC will give to Yemen is in accordance with the request of the Yemeni government, and is in the spirit of Islamic solidarity and brotherhood,” Al-Madnee said.
He also expressed the hope that the OIC could soon hold a ministerial meeting to discuss the situation in Yemen on the request of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The 57 OIC countries have been invited to attend the meeting to be held in Jeddah. Sources said that the OIC is close to achieving the needed quorum for the meeting.
Al-Madnee added that the OIC had also helped Yemen during the floods in 2008 with a $500,000 fund pool. This was used in the establishment of a hospital.
“The hospital can accommodate 60,000 internally displaced people in the Mazraq area, Saada, in Yemen,” he said. He added that “the OIC has continued to run the hospital, which is managed by Doctors Without Borders, for three years now at a cost of $6 million.”