Unless emergency funds were forthcoming, humanitarian aid meant for 8 millions Yemenis will be arrested in March, United Nations officials have warned. This comes amidst the biggest escalation in a long war that saw the highest ring in civilian casualties in the last month.
UN special envoy Hans Grundberg and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths painted a deteriorating picture of the already dire situation in the Arab worldthe poorest nation. They said the past month brought multiplication of combat areas and the end of January saw nearly two-thirds of major UN aid programs be scaled back or closed.
Yemen has been rocked by civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sanaa, and many of that of the country northforcing the government flee south, then to Saudi Arabia. A Saudi coalition went to war in March 2015, backed by the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in an attempt to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi power.
Grundberg has warned the UN Security Council that recent Houthi attacks on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia “indicate how this conflict is likely to escalate out of control unless serious efforts are urgently needed made by the Yemeni parties, the region and the international community to end the conflict.
He said a coalition air strike on a detention ease in Saada, controlled by the Houthis, “was the worst incident of civilian casualties in three years”, and he pointed to an “alarming” increase in Airstrikes in Yemen, including on Residential areas in Sanaa and the port area of Hodeida.
Griffith said more more than 650 civilians were killed or injured in January with airstrikes, bombings, small arms fire and other violence, “from afar the highest ring in at least three years. »
“War finds people in their homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and other places where civilians should be protected,” he said. “On January 21, an airstrike hit a detention ease in saada killing or hurt more more than 300 inmates. Cross-border attacks have also intensified, killing, injuring and threatening civilians in the region.”
Neither Grundberg nor Griffiths saw any signs of the conflict subsides.
Grundberg said he would begin consultations next the week with belligerents, political parties, civil society and experts on son project of move towards a three-track political settlement – political, security and economic – although the Houthis have so far refused to invite him to visit Sanaa.
He stressed that “trust is low and ending this war will require uncomfortable compromises that no war party is currently ready to do.
“It is therefore incumbent upon all of ussaid Grundberg, “including this advice, to exercise all possible effort to make the parties to this conflict understand that there is no military Solution.”
Between of war, Yemen has long been considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, perhaps overshadowed right now by Afghanistan.
But Griffiths warned that “aid agencies are working fast out of money forcing them to slash to save lives programs.”
He said the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reduced food rations for 8 millions people in December and onwards in March “those 8 millions people may not receive food at all – or just a reduced ration.” In March, the UN could also have to cancel most humanitarian flights in Yemen, he said.
Funding shortages could also deprive 3.6 millions people of drinking water and the end programs at combat gender-based violence and promote reproductive health, he said.
Griffiths called the scale of the current funding gaps in Yemen ‘unprecedented’, saying UN never considered giving millions of hungry people no food or the suspension of humanitarian flights.
According to the UN humanitarian organization’s humanitarian plan 2021 for Yemen received $2.27 billion out of son requirement of $3.85 billion, the lowest funding level since 2015. The 2022 plan has not been released.
Griffiths announced that Sweden and Switzerland will jointly organize a high-level donors’ conference event for Yemen with the UN on March 16.
