Three days in Yemen – Angelina Jolie calls for protection and support for the people of Yemen

Ten days after her visit, Angelina Jolie, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ special envoy and renowned American star, revealed her sights in Yemen.

In a statement posted on her website by the UN Refugee Agency, Angelina Jolie said: “I was in Yemen and met some of the 4 million people who have been displaced by the conflict”.

She continued: “I visited one of the squatter camps housing 130 families. Only 20 of them receive some kind of food assistance – and only when the funding is available”.

She also said she visited a makeshift school of five small dark rooms. The children were sitting on the floor and they didn’t eat, not even the teacher. She was a volunteer.

The teacher complained about her suffering for Angelina Jolie, saying she walks at least an hour every day to reach that far away, trying to give children a glimmer of hope for the future.

She added: “They have nothing.. no food, pens, seating, school books, no salary for the teacher… Children as young as 13 sit next to three-year-old children struggling to learn how to read and write in the hope of a future they may never see”.

Jolie reported visiting another site where displaced families are living in run-down shelters with no income or food at all, miles from any point in the water or sanitation.

I noticed that there were no toilets, no bathrooms, no school. Most of the children were illiterate because of years of conflict.

The phenomenon of marrying off young girls caught the attention of the American star, who said that it was sometimes done to provide a price to feed a family member, or to obtain a dowry that might help other children in the family to live.

Faced with this reality, the UN envoy appealed for assistance to Yemen, which is suffering from a severe lack of funding, amid a conflict that has been going on for many years without political solutions.

Jolie said: “So let’s be clear. As we all know, we cannot point to anywhere in the world where we are successful in deterring attacks or reducing the number of people forced to flee their homes”.

She added: “Last year, United Nations humanitarian programs received only half the funding level, and this year we are facing unprecedented needs. Needs were growing worldwide even before the devastating effects of the war in Ukraine came to light”

On Yemen, the UNHCR envoy said that the country, for which UNHCR’s appeal was only 9 per cent funded. Beyond all its suffering, Yemen is hosting more than 100,000 refugees from Somalia, Syria, Ethiopia and other countries, without any support.