Millions More at Risk of Starvation in Yemen: UN

On May 26, 2018

YemenExtra

The United Nations aid chief expressed concern over the decline of food imports to Yemen amid restrictions put in place by the Saudi Arabia, warning that a further 10 million Yemenis could face starvation by year-end.

“I am particularly concerned about the recent decline of commercial food imports through the Red Sea ports,” Mark Lowcock, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement on Friday.

Lowcock stated that commercial food and fuel imports remained “well short of pre-blockade averages”.

“If conditions do not improve, a further 10 million people will fall into this category by the end of the year,” he warned.

Confidence among commercial shippers has eroded due to delays, “including as a result of inspections undertaken by the Saudi-led coalition after these vessels have been cleared by UNVIM,” Lowcock stressed, referring to a UN verification system.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 16,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.