ANKARA
The Union of Non-governmental Organizations of the Islamic World (UNIW) is collecting humanitarian aid to send to war-stricken Yemen through an aid ship organized by the Turkish Red Crescent, it was announced Wednesday.
Ali Kurt, the union’s secretary-general, said the aid ship would be sent from Turkey's southern city of Mersin to Yemen within two weeks.
Kurt urged all organizations wishing to participate in the aid effort to hurry up and send goods through them for the Yemeni people.
He added that the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Union of Yemeni Non-Governmental Organizations would provide all necessary support for the aid delivery.
According to a recent UN report, more than 21 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen, Kurt said.
He also said that about 12.5 million Yemenis had been directly affected by the war and people there mostly lacked healthcare, food security, water and shelter.
Yemen’s Shia Houthi militia, which since last year has overrun much of the country, remains an ally of forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to step down in 2012 following a year of pro-democracy demonstrations.
In late March, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began an extensive air campaign that has continued to pound Houthi positions across the Arab country.
According to the official UNIW website, a conference titled “The International Conference of Non-governmental Organizations of the Islamic World: Searching for a New Vision in a Changing World” was organized on May 1, 2005 in Istanbul that witnessed the participation of more than 300 non-governmental organizations from 40 countries.
On the first day of the conference, the establishment of the Union of Non-Governmental Organizations of the Islamic World was agreed upon. At present, the union has 217 members, the website added.
