Qatar, Turkey donate $1m to war-ravaged Yemen

Qatar and Turkey have donated $1 million to deliver vital food aid to Yemen.

The Qatar Charity Foundation made the donation on Monday during a cooperation protocol ceremony at the office of the Red Crescent in Istanbul, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.

"We will need to continue to support the Red Crescent for its projects in Yemen that will meet food needs, particularly hospital needs," said Faisal Rashid al-Fehaid, head of the Qatar Charity Foundation.

The $1 million sum will go towards buying and shipping clean food and water to areas most affected by an ongoing famine.

Additionally a new treatment centre for gastric diseases will be established at a hospital in Yemen.

Yemen has been embroiled in a devastating war for the last three years. The conflict has seen tens of thousands die since a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab countries intervened to push back Houthi rebels supported by Iran.

The country is also facing a massive drought as rainfall is far below the average and the civil war has made access to water sources and farms difficult.

This has caused massive famines across the country taking nearly as many lives as the conflict has.

The UN in Yemen said the humanitarian situation in Yemen is "extremely fragile and any disruption in the pipeline of critical supplies such as food, fuel and medicines has the potential to bring millions of people closer to starvation and death".