Local Editor
The United Nations on Wednesday demanded media access to report on the "man-made catastrophe" in Yemen after a Saudi Arabia-led coalition blocked three foreign journalists from traveling on a U.N. aid flight to the Yemeni capital Sana’a.
"Steps like this do not help," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York. "This has been a large man-made humanitarian problem, the world needs to know and journalists need to have access."
The coalition, which launched its military campaign against Yemen in 2015, controls the airspace over Yemen and can prevent any flights made without prior permission.
The Saudis prevented the U.N. flight from departing Djibouti on Tuesday because the journalists were due to travel.
Haq said the U.N. humanitarian air service had been allowed to take off on Wednesday and had landed in Sanaa carrying 26 humanitarian aid workers, but not the three journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
"This partially explains why Yemen, which is one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, is not getting enough attention in international media," Haq said.
"The lack of coverage is hindering humanitarian workers efforts to draw the attention of the international community and donors to the man-made catastrophe that the country is experiencing," he said.
Top United Nations officials last week blamed the ongoing conflict for the unprecedented deadly cholera outbreak, which is driving millions closer to famine and hindering humanitarian aid access.
Since the end of April, the World Health Organization said there have been more than 320,000 suspected cases of cholera - a disease that causes uncontrollable diarrhea - and 1,742 deaths across more than 90 percent of the Arabian Peninsula country.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
