Saudi’s KSrelief signs $10m deal with UK for cholera response in Yemen

Saudi aid agency KSrelief and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Monday signed an agreement to expand cholera response efforts in Yemen, potentially benefiting an estimated 3.5 million people. (Supplied)
Short Url
Updated 29 April 2025
Follow

Saudi’s KSrelief signs $10m deal with UK for cholera response in Yemen

  • KSrelief will provide $5m to the WHO, while the UK government will provide a further $5m to the UN Children’s Fund
  • An estimated 3.5m people will benefit from the deal to fund a wide range of disease management and prevention services

LONDON: Saudi aid agency KSrelief and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Monday signed an agreement to expand cholera response efforts in Yemen, potentially benefiting an estimated 3.5 million people.

KSrelief will provide $5 million to the World Health Organization, while the UK government will provide a further $5 million to the UN Children’s Fund. The money will help support emergency cholera-response activities in Yemen’s worst-affected provinces.

The WHO will deliver a range of services to tackle cholera, including leadership and coordination expertise, disease surveillance, rapid-response teams, and management of cases. KSrelief will assist these efforts through infection-prevention and control efforts, water sanitation and hygiene improvements, risk communication, community engagement, and oral cholera-vaccination campaigns.

The UK funding will be used to tackle water sanitation, hygiene, and health interventions in the most contaminated and high-risk areas.

The agreement was signed in London by Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of KSrelief, and Jenny Chapman, minister of state for international development at the Foreign Office, during the former’s official visit to the UK.


Saudi Arabia welcomes ceasefire agreement between Syrian Democratic Forces and Syria state

Updated 19 January 2026
Follow

Saudi Arabia welcomes ceasefire agreement between Syrian Democratic Forces and Syria state

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has welcomed an agreement between the Syrian state and Syrian Democratic Forces.
In a foreign ministry statement early on Monday, the Kingdom said it had welcomed an deal between Damascus and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces that was announced by the Syrian government on Sunday.
The agreement entails merging all SDF forces into the defense and interior ministries and means that Kurdish forces will redeploy to east of the Euphrates river.
The 14-point deal would also see the immediate administrative and military handover of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa governorates.
The Syrian state would regain control of all border crossings, oil fields, and gas fields in the region, with protection secured by regular forces to ensure the return of resources to the Syrian government, while considering the special case of Kurdish areas, the state news agency SANA reported.
The ceasefire comes after intense fighting between the SDF and government troops in Aleppo. But SDF troops have now pulled back from there and the Syrian army now controls most areas east of Aleppo.
The Saudi foreign ministry statement also thanked the US for the agreement. Washington is believed to have supported brokering the ceasefire between allies SDF and the Syrian government, who they have also backed diplomatically since the fall of long-time dictator Bashar Assad.
The Syrian state announced on Friday a raft of new directives to recognize Syrian Kurds, including making their language official and bolstering other rights for the minority group.