Local Editor
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has called for a ceasefire around of Hodeida, where Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and foreign mercenaries are fighting Houthi Ansarullah fighters for the control of the western Yemeni port city.
“I ask that the parties implement a cessation of hostilities, not least in and around all the infrastructure and facilities on which the aid operation and commercial importers rely,” Lowcock said in a statement on Tuesday.
He added that the United Nations was ready to play a role in “ensuring the appropriate use of key facilities, especially around Hodeida.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed deep concern about the recent wave of violence in Hudaydah and its impact on the civilian population as well as on humanitarian aid operations.
The world body appealed to parties to the conflict to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel; and to secure humanitarian relief items stored in the strategically important Yemeni city.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
