Local Editor

Several of the United Nations’ [UN] agencies and partners confirmed on Friday that despite widespread insecurity, port delays and severe restrictions on access, the UN is working to deliver humanitarian aid in war-torn Yemen.

The UN refugee agency said that it had managed to continue to deliver humanitarian aid to displaced people in Yemen in May and June despite severe restrictions on access.

"The distributions have come amid a worsening situation in many governorates. Al Hazm, the capital of Al Jawf governorate in the country’s north, was hit by [Saudi-led] airstrikes for three consecutive days in late June causing the evacuation of an estimated 900 families," UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told a press briefing in Switzerland’s Geneva.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been conducting military air strikes against Yemen since March 26. The US-led Saudi airstrikes have not been authorizez by the UN.

In addition, most of the residents of the city’s Al Matuma district have now sought safety in Al Maton and Al Masloub districts.

Al Maton was the first district in Al Jawf to receive displaced people from Sa’ada. At present there are an estimated 2,470 internally displaced families there along with an additional 1,400 families from Amran and other governorates.

UNHCR stressed that the humanitarian response for these populations has been severely restricted due to ongoing fighting and the consequent problems with access.

The UNHCR repeated its call for unfettered access for and movements of humanitarian workers and supplies so that vital assistance can reach those in need.

"We were able to get basic relief to 56,369 people and plastic sheeting for emergency shelters to a further 7,000 families who have been staying in collective centres," Edwards further said.

Edwards said aid has been going out across eight areas, known as governorates. These comprised Abyan, Aden, Amanat Alasimah, Amran, Hajjah, Hodeida, Sana’a and Taiz.

In all, 84,166 displaced people have received non-food aid since the start of April, about 70 percent of this coming directly from UNHCR and the rest from partners. 

Currently, however, there are over one million internally displaced people in Yemen [1,019,762], plus some 244,000 refugees. Overall, it is now estimated that over 21 million people are in need throughout the country.

According to the World Food Programme [WFP], it said that limited access due to constant insecurity remains a fundamental obstacle to the effective delivery of food commodities in Yemen.

"The situation in Yemen is dire", a spokesperson for the WFP, Elisabeth Byrs said, noting that WFP’s operations from June to August were not fully funded and that $103 million is urgently needed.

In June, food for 80,000 people was distributed but this had not been nearly enough for the one million inhabitants of Aden, Byrs said. 

"The food situation in Aden is very bad", she further said, reporting that humanitarian agencies are facing serious difficulties to reaching the port. The security situation remained volatile around the port area and in most of the city, which is suffering from small shortages of clean water and power cuts. Most bakeries in Aden had reportedly shut down because of wheat and fuel shortages, she added.

AWFP-chartered vessel continued to be redirected to Hodeidah port, despite frequent attempts to deliver to Aden. "WFP had attempted several times to reach Aden with ships but the poor security situation around the port had forced the ships to turn back. 

"Commercial shipping into Yemen is slowly increasing but remains constrained by port congestion and high fees due to the time spent by ships waiting to dock. Delays as long as 11 days have been reported at Hodeidah and Salif ports," Byrs further said.

At the same briefing, Fadéla Chaib, spokesperson for the World Health Organization [WHO], provided recent figures on violations to health facilities and staff in Yemen due to the conflict, as of 14 June 2015. So far, there had been 54 total health facilities damaged, of which 20 had been fully damaged, and 13 health workers had been injured of whom three had been killed, she informed the press.