Aden governor asks UN agencies to fund development as well as emergency aid

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ADEN, Yemen — Aden’s governor asked UN humanitarian agencies on Sunday to widen their funding beyond emergency relief and into service and development projects, Yemen’s state news agency reported.

Abdulrahman Sheikh, who serves as minister of state and as governor of Aden, made the request in a meeting with a delegation from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, according to Saba, the news agency of the internationally recognised government.

A deputy representative of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, also took part, Saba said.

The account of the meeting rests entirely on that agency report. No independent confirmation of what was discussed has been published, and Yemen Herald could not verify the account.

Sheikh told the delegation that aid aimed only at immediate needs was not keeping pace with the strain on Aden’s services, Saba reported. He asked for interventions and funding that reach into service delivery and development.

The governor set out what he described as the local authority’s efforts to absorb displaced families and to coordinate with government bodies and relief organisations, according to the agency.

The OCHA and UNHCR representatives said assistance should be coordinated with Aden’s local authority and directed according to actual needs, Saba reported.

Displacement ran through the discussion.

Official statistics put the number of displaced people in Aden at 46,675 as of Saturday, Saba said in a separate report filed the same night.

Most arrived from Taiz, Hudaydah and the western coastal areas, the agency said.

Sheikh attributed the displacement to Houthi military escalation and to attacks on civilian property and infrastructure, according to Saba. The Houthis reject government accounts of responsibility for civilian harm, and the report carried no comment from the group.

Aden is the seat of the internationally recognised government, and Saba refers to the city as the temporary capital.

The city’s intake forms part of a wider movement of people across Yemen since the summer.

The United Nations said more than 250,000 people had been displaced inside the country since fighting flared in August. By 22 October it put the figure at close to 260,000.

The International Organization for Migration reported displacement passing 200,000 earlier in the same escalation, and said funding was drying up as needs rose.

Aid agencies have linked much of the new movement to conditions in Taiz, the main origin of arrivals in Aden, where the United Nations has described a tightening Houthi siege.

Those movements sit on top of one of the largest humanitarian caseloads in the world.

OCHA’s humanitarian needs and response plan for 2026, published in March, counted more than 22 million people in need of assistance across Yemen.

The plan recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure.

It counted more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, of whom 516,157 were severely malnourished.

The same plan put the number of internally displaced people at 5.2 million, and sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.

OCHA coordinates the international relief response in Yemen and compiles that annual plan. UNHCR leads protection and shelter work for displaced families.

Saba did not say whether the meeting produced any commitment of additional funding.

The agency named two UN officials as attending. Yemen Herald has not printed those names, because the agency’s English spellings of foreign officials’ names have proved unreliable and neither could be matched against the agencies’ own records.

The meeting was held in Aden on Sunday, Saba said.

The request to shift money toward development echoes a line other ministers have taken with donors this month.

Yemen’s water minister asked the European Union in October to align future funding with national priorities rather than with short-term relief cycles, Saba reported at the time.

Conditions in the governorates sending people to Aden have worsened through the autumn.

Aid agencies reported this month that water output in Taiz had halved while cholera cases tripled.

The World Health Organization said 42 health facilities in Taiz were facing severe shortages, and that dialysis sessions had been cut.

The United Nations said 800,000 people in Taiz had been cut off from aid for 20 days.

Not all of those leaving have stayed inside Yemen. Djibouti registered 3,807 Yemeni arrivals by sea as fighting spread along the Red Sea coast, according to its authorities.

Yemen’s planning minister and UNHCR reviewed refugee returns and assistance for displaced families in a separate meeting this month, Saba reported.

Aden’s own population figures are contested, and no census has been held in Yemen since 2004.

The 46,675 figure cited by Saba refers to displaced people recorded in the city, not to the total number of people who have arrived since August.

Saba did not identify which agency compiled it.

OCHA publishes its Yemen funding position periodically through the year. The 2.16 billion dollar appeal set out in March remained the reference figure for the response at the time of the meeting.

Sunday’s meeting was one of two the governor held with UN agencies that day. He met the representative of the UN Population Fund separately to discuss youth training and support for displaced people and host communities, Saba reported.