Local Editor
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that the destruction of the vital Yemeni port of Hodeida could trigger a "catastrophic" situation.
"If the port at Hodeida is destroyed, that could create an absolutely catastrophic situation," Guterres told France Info radio during a trip to Paris.
The massive invasion has put the safety of nearly 600,000 people living in Hodeida at risk and imperiled the livelihoods of millions of others dependent on the port for shipment of scarce food and humanitarian aid into Yemen.
Yemen is under a Saudi blockade which has put the impoverished nation on the brink of the worst humanitarian crisis in 100 years, according to the United Nations.
In their offensive against Hodeida, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are using heavy weapons and armaments, enlisting many mercenaries from Africa and elsewhere amid close aerial support by military helicopters and fighter jets.
Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children's field coordinator in Yemen, has said the people in Hodeida are living in a "state of fear."
The intensified battle for Hodeida comes despite Pentagon chief James Mattis calling last month for a ceasefire and negotiations between Yemen's warring parties within 30 days.
Both the United States and Britain are major suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was due in Saudi Arabia on Monday, with the Foreign Office saying he would press King Salman and Prince Mohammed to support UN efforts to end the conflict.
Head of Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said in an op-ed published by The Washington Post on Friday that the escalating offensive in Hodeida showed Mattis' ceasefire call was "nothing but empty talk."
Saudi Arabia launched its devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the war has claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis so far.
On Friday, a senior Houthi official said Yemen would turn into a "graveyard” for aggressors as Saudi-backed militants announced that they had begun a military operation to take over Hodeida.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
