UN Warns of ‘Worsening’ Humanitarian Situation in Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations warned of a "worsening" humanitarian situation in Yemen but said a fragile two-month truce since early April could help reverse the situation.
"The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a reality that we need to urgently address," UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said in a statement released late Saturday.
"Over 23 million people -- or almost three-quarters of Yemen's population -- now need assistance... an increase of almost three million people from 2021," he said.
Gressly urged donors to take advantage of a UN-brokered truce that has largely held since April 2.
"The UN-led truce is a vital opportunity for aid agencies to scale up life-saving assistance and to reach more people in acute need quickly, including in areas where access was limited due to armed conflict and insecurity," he said.
"For aid agencies to immediately step up efforts, we count on sufficient donor funding. Otherwise, the aid operation will collapse despite the positive momentum we are seeing in Yemen today," Gressly warned.
He said the UN needs around $4.3 billion for its 2022 humanitarian response plan for Yemen "to reverse a steady deterioration of the humanitarian situation".
The plan aims to target 17.3 million people, he said, adding that nearly 13 million people "are already facing acute levels of need".
However, Yemen's Ansarullah popular resistance movement has hit out at the Saudi-led coalition for its continued blockade of Sana'a airport in Yemen's capital in violation of a recently agreed ceasefire deal.
"The continued closure of Sana'a Airport and its refusal to allow flights agreed under the ceasefire and obstructing ships from reaching the port of al-Hudaydah proves the coalition of aggressors' blatant defiance and lack of seriousness of about peace," Ansarullah spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam tweeted last Sunday.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating military aggression against its southern neighbor in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allied states and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states.
The offensive that has been seeking to restore the country's power to its former Riyadh-aligned officials, has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire Yemen into the scene of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
More than half of Yemen’s 30 million population (16.2 million) face acute hunger, with half of the children under five (2.3 million) at risk of malnutrition.