Local Editor

The United Nations [UN] warned on Wednesday that the ongoing conflict in Yemen has resulted in over 32,000 casualties, with 5,700 people killed, including 830 women and children, alongside a sharp rise in human rights violations occurring every day.

"The collapse of basic services in Yemen continues to accelerate", the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Johannes Van der Klaauw, told reporters via videoconference from Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.

Approximately 14 million people lack sufficient access to healthcare, Van der Klaauw said, with three million children and pregnant or lactating women in need of malnutrition treatment or preventive services, and 1.8 million children have been out of school since mid-March. 

He further noted that the devastating conflict, which now has spread to 20 of Yemen’s 22 governorates, has led to a desperate humanitarian situation that has "drastically deteriorated" over the last seven months.

He added that the people of Yemen are now "grappling with a breakdown of essential services and forced displacement", as nearly 21.2 million people, or a staggering 82 per cent of the population, are in need for some kind of humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs or protect their fundamental rights, including protection of civilians and provision of essential services.

"We estimate that over 19 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation; over 14 million people are food insecure, including 7.6 million who are severely food insecure; and nearly 320,000 children are acutely malnourished", Van der Klaauw told another press briefing held at the UN Information Centre in Egypt’s Cairo via satellite.

He explained that the current crisis squeezed vulnerable communities and negatively affected coping mechanisms and further exacerbated the humanitarian situation owing to ’an almost complete disregard for human life, with indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. 

He reported a drastic reduction in commercial imports, causing dangerously low availability of fuel, food, medicines and other essential commodities.

Consequently, this has led to cutting of water pumping and trucking services and healthcare services and a dramatic increase in food prices along with the availability of less than an hour of electricity in most parts of the country.

Noting the depletion of basic resources, he urged the international community to relax restrictions on commercial imports, especially fuel, medical supplies and food.

Lastly, he emphasized that the crisis in Yemen requires a political solution that can address the root causes of the conflict and people’s suffering, and he called on the international community to find a political solution to the conflict, before it is too late and there is even further devastation in the country.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression on Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country since March 26.

The airstrikes have not been authorized by the UN.