CARE: Statement on the reopening of Sana’a Airport and Hodeidah Port

YemenExtra

M.A.

While CARE welcomes today’s announcement that Sana’a Airport and the Hodeidah Port will be reopened for humanitarian assistance following a two-week blockade by the Saudi-led Coalition, this is just a first step. CARE remains deeply concerned that, unless all ports are open to commercial goods, famine and further disease outbreaks will not be averted. Not only is the commercial import of food and medical supplies necessary for survival, without fuel Yemen’s water and sanitation networks will not function in a country already battling cholera. Humanitarian assistance alone is not enough to supply the basic needs and protections critical for Yemen’s population.

RELATED: https://www.yemenextra.net/2017/10/21/yemen-has-turned-into-a-mass-grave-and-a-humanitarian-catastrophe-ministry-of-health/

With nearly 21 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance – including 7 million facing emergency levels of food insecurity – access to the most vulnerable across the entire country must be facilitated by all parties to the conflict. Hodeidah Port and Sana’a Airport must be opened to commercial supplies and delivery of aid on the ground must not be impeded. CARE calls on all parties to allow for immediate and unhindered humanitarian access, and the lifting of restrictions to commercial imports. The survival of millions of Yemeni people is on the line. It must not be crossed.

Ruby Wright, Press and PR Manager: +442070916047, [email protected]