Local Editor

According to the United Nations [UN] on Friday, over 80 percent of Yemen’s population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance amid the ongoing US-led Saudi aggression against the impoverished country.

The spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [UNOCHA], Stephane Dujarric, said that, "Aid organizations released new figures on Friday which show significant increases in humanitarian needs in Yemen since the escalation of the conflict".

Dujarric said that it is estimated that 20.4 million people in Yemen, some 80 percent of the country’s population, require emergency humanitarian aid to access safe drinking water and sanitation.

"Over 1 million people have been internally displaced and need emergency shelter and essential household items," said Dujarric, adding that, "1.4 million people are in need of protection assistance, including 7.3 million children."

At least 12.3 million people, nearly half the population, are food insecure, added the UN spokesman, stressing that 15.2 million people require assistance to obtain basic healthcare while 1.5 million women and children also need nutrition services.

According to the UN, at least 2,300 people have been killed and over 7,330 injured in Yemen’s conflict since March 19. The UN has repeatedly stressed that the actual toll could be higher, as many of those killed and injured do not pass through the health authorities.

The US-led Saudi aggression has killed thousands of Yemeni people and displaced hundreds of thousands since March. 

Saudi Arabia began its US-led military aggression on Yemen on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.