UN: Humanitarian Situation in Yemen Tragic, from Bad to Worse

Local Editor

Only a lasting ceasefire in Yemen will allow aid workers to fully address the country’s "monumental" humanitarian challenge after six weeks of air strikes and conflict, a senior United Nations official said on Friday
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This comes as the leadership of the Saudi aggression on Yemen has offered a five-day pause in hostilities, setting the condition that Ansarullah rebels end their Resistance.
UN coordinator for Yemen Paulo Lembo said a military pause would allow UN agencies to increase relief for tens of thousands of displaced people and tackle shortages of food, medicine, water and fuel.

"I am optimistic it will come into being in the near future and the UN’s international system is already prepared to respond to this development," Lembo said. "It will have a very positive consequences on our ability to expand our response."

But only a long-term truce would make a real difference in a conflict where "the scale of the humanitarian challenge we have is not less than monumental", he told Reuters in interview.

"A five day truce would not be sufficient to cover the daunting humanitarian needs of the country. We hope that this soon will transform into a permanent truce," Lembo said.
International concern over Yemen’s plight has grown as more than 1,300 people have been martyred, infrastructure has been hit and an air and sea blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies has complicated relief efforts in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, which imports 90 percent of its food.

"The situation is tragic and it evolves from bad to worse hour by hour," Lembo said, pointing to fragmentation of warring factions and intensified fighting in the southern city of Aden.

Lembo said a UN-chartered vessel with a large cargo of fuel was waiting off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodaida, and others were being prepared to ferry aid and fuel from nearby Dijbouti.

"This vessel could first of all unload immediately a consignment of fuel that is much needed for us. There are several vessels that will be enough to expand our operations," Lembo added.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team