Shipping Companies Shun Yemen's Hudaydah Port due to Insecurity: UN
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Operations at Yemen’s lifeline port of Hudaydah have nearly halved in two weeks, as high levels of insecurity in the flashpoint city deter shipping companies, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday.
As 70 percent of imports come in through the vital port, a decrease in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would impact food stocks in the country where 14 million people are facing possible starvation, it said, Reuters reported.
“Shipping companies appear to be reluctant to call to Hudaydah port because of the high levels of insecurity in the city,” WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel told a news briefing.
The port city - the main gateway for imports of relief supplies and commercial goods into the country - is under the Houthi Ansarullah movement's control. In June, the Saudi-UAE alliance launched a wide-ranging operation to retake the strategic seaport but failed to do so.
UN agencies say up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation if the port of Hudaydah is closed by fighting or damage.
Aid group Save the Children reported on Wednesday that as many as 85,000 children may have starved to death in the past three years during Saudi Arabia's brutal war on the impoverished Arab country.
Yemen is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster with millions facing starvation and disease after years of war on the country.
The Saudi-led war in Yemen started in March 2015 as an attempt to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement in the region and reinstall former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.