Saudi donates $25m to UNRWA

Saudi Arabia has through its embassy in Amman, Jordan donated $25 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

This was announced in a statement issued on Tuesday October 6, 2020.

The United Nations agency said the donation is part of a “larger commitment pledged by the kingdom to help the agency maintain the important services it provides to a total of 5.6 million Palestine refugees.”

The UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said, “At a time of regional political turmoil, pandemic and economic and financial crises, Palestine refugees will know that their rights and wellbeing are not being questioned and that Saudi Arabia stands by them”.

For a few years now, the UN agency has been suffering from a suffocating financial crisis as the donations it receives from donor countries do not keep pace with the increasing demand for its services.

In 2018, UNRWA’s financial problems were exacerbated after the United States announced that it was withholding $65 million of a $125 million aid package earmarked for UNRWA.