Local Editor
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi Ansarullah movement in Yemen prevented the delivery of four mobile cranes to the malfunctioning Hodeida port, the port managing director said on Thursday.
Hodeida port and province is controlled by the Houthis and has been the entry point for 80 percent of Yemen's food supplies as well as humanitarian aid.
The port has suffered significant financial losses as a result of the blockade of airspace and territorial waters by the Saudi-led coalition.
"Between 60 and 80 percent of the port's cranes have been destroyed by air strikes, with direct and indirect costs hovering around $600 million, that reflects the difficulties facing Hodeida port," Hodeida Port director Mohamed Abu Bakr Isaac told Reuters.
Yemen's airspace and territorial waters are under the control of Saudi Arabia and its allies, making shipments under the ultimate control of the coalition before docking in Yemeni ports.
Shipments can be sent back even after U.N. clearance as the international organization checks ships heading to Hodeida in Djibouti while passing through the Bab al-Man dab Strait.
Four cranes were given by the World Food Programmer (WFP) to help ease the congestion at the port after coalition air strikes destroyed five cranes last year, forcing dozens of ships to wait offshore their turn to dock.
Abu Bakr Isaac said on Thursday (August 17) that the Saudi-led coalition in January had stopped the delivery of the cranes.
The WFP confirmed the coalition prevented the cranes from entering the port and said the shipment went back to Dubai after it waited offshore for more than a week.
It also said the four mobile cranes were funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The coalition did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A coalition spokesman said the WFP had not coordinated with the alliance before it went ahead and sourced the equipment, adding that the Outhits wanted the cranes to create a source of income from imports to finance the war effort.
The civil war in Yemen has already killed more than 10,000 people, with millions displaced and malnourished. More than half a million people have also been infected with cholera, the United Nations said.
More than two years of conflict has pitted the Houthi group against the regime of resigned President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led alliance.
Coalition and Hadi loyalists have been planning an attack on Hodeida port claiming that the Houthis are using it to smuggle weapons. International agencies warned them the move would put millions of civilians at risk.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which stopped using Hodeida port for delivery of humanitarian aid in February, said it will send a rice shipment next week for a first test of the port, ICRC spokeswoman Yolanda Jaquemet said on Wednesday.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
