UN Office Provides Aid to Cyclone-hit Socotra

Children on Socotra island. (File Photo: Reuters)
Children on Socotra island. (File Photo: Reuters)
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UN Office Provides Aid to Cyclone-hit Socotra

Children on Socotra island. (File Photo: Reuters)
Children on Socotra island. (File Photo: Reuters)

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen confirmed its response to the High Relief Committee in Yemen call for the relief of Socotra.

The office indicated that it sent a team to the area to identify all needs.

Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Oki Lutsma sent a letter to the Minister of Local Administration and Chairman of the Yemeni Higher Relief Committee, Abdurraqib Fateh, informing him that the office urgently provided 10 tons of relief and therapeutic materials, 1000 kits of shelter, 4000 hygiene items and 35 containers of drinking water.

The Office indicated that it had formed a team to determine the needs of the island and continue to provide them for the citizens.

Meanwhile, governor of Socotra Ramzi Mahroos received a delegation from different United Nations organizations that arrived in the area to assess the needs of the people.

Saba news agency reported that Mahroos said that Socotra's local authority had procured four months' worth of food aid before Mekunu struck destroying the ships laden with thousands of tons of commodities and caused dozens of merchants to lose millions of Riyals. He said the province is without any food up stocked on for the windy season, while the available food supplies barely cover a single month's worth of consumption.

The governor warned that an acute humanitarian disaster is looming unless the humanitarian organizations do something.



Tunisians Vote in Election, with Main Rival to Saied in Prison

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
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Tunisians Vote in Election, with Main Rival to Saied in Prison

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

Tunisians began voting on Sunday in an election in which President Kais Saied is seeking a second term, with his main rival suddenly jailed last month and the other candidate heading a minor political party.
Sunday's election pits Saied against two rivals: his former ally turned critic, Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel, who had been seen as posing a big threat to Saied until he was jailed last month.
Senior figures from the biggest parties, which largely oppose Saied, have been imprisoned on various charges over the past year and those parties have not publicly backed any of the three candidates on Sunday's ballot. Other opponents have been barred from running.
Polls close at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) and results are expected in the next two days. Political tensions have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three prominent candidates last month, amid protests by opposition and civil society groups. Lawmakers loyal to Saied then approved a law last week stripping the administrative court of authority over election disputes. This Court is widely seen as the country's last independent judicial body, after Saied dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges in 2022.
Saied, elected in 2019, seized most powers in 2021 when he dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution, a move the opposition described as a coup.