Relief organizations operating in Yemen’s Marib governorate, which is hosting the largest gathering of refugees, are being accused of bias and a lack of transparency with calls urging them to switch partners over what was labeled as “grave and continued conduct violations.”
A local official held those organizations responsible for increasing the suffering of relief aid beneficiaries by failing to commit to the implementation of agreements between the local authorities and the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).
These accusations come shortly after Marib authorities having struck an agreement for a recount of refugees in the governorate. The recount was decided after authorities blamed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for dropping 1.5 million refugees from the list of beneficiaries.
“The local authority requested to change the WFP’s partners in Marib,” said an official statement quoting the governorates first undersecretary, Abed Rabbo Muftah.
“The change was requested due to the major and continuous violations committed in performance,” the statement explained.
“These violations contradict the principle of neutrality in humanitarian action, and they increase the suffering of WFP beneficiaries,” it added, noting that some Yemenis who are entitled to food rations are not receiving any aid.
Muftah’s remarks were made during his meeting with the WFP’s Mutinta Chimuka.
The Yemeni official also stressed that the WFP’s partners in Marib are hurting the organization’s relationship with local authorities.
Muftah accused the partners of a lack of transparency when it comes to disclosing the real number of failed deliveries of food rations donated through the WFP.
Some beneficiaries are unsuccessful in receiving their aid because they are not well informed on distribution dates and windows.
On that matter, Muftah stressed the need to increase the number of days for distributing food aid so that everyone can receive their rations, and to set delivery dates in a fixed period each month.
