Local Editor
Concluding a five-day mission, his first to Yemen, the UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Mark Lowcock, said the war in the impoverished Arab nation should end through a political process.
"I came to Yemen to better understand the deteriorating humanitarian crisis, including the fastest-growing cholera epidemic the world has ever seen, the world's largest food insecurity and conditions of widespread population displacement," Lowcock said.
"It's been shocking to see the terrible impact of this man-made conflict," he told reporters before leaving Sana’a.
"The UN calls on all parties ... to uphold the highest standards of international humanitarian law and respect human rights with respect to everyone including detainees and journalists," he added.
Lowcock is scheduled to speak at a one-day high level meeting on the humanitarian response to the Yemen crisis in Riyadh on Sunday.
During his visit, Lowcock held talks in Aden, where the Hadi regime is based, and in Sana’a, as well as visiting several other areas.
He called for reopening Sana’a airport for commercial and humanitarian flights.
Lowcock said he saw severely malnourished children, visited hospitals with barely any electricity and water and met health workers who have not been paid for months.
A Saudi-led military coalition has been bombing Yemen since March 2015.
The UN has described Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis.
More than 12,000 people have been killed in the conflict and around 58,600 others have been wounded, most of them civilians.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
