More 10,000 died in Yemen over last 5 months

YemenExtra

SH.A.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen over the past five months — raising the death toll 70,000, a new analysis says.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said in its report Thursday war on Yemen has led to a humanitarian crisis and 14 million people on the edge of starvation. The price of food in Yemen since 2015 has increased 68 percent, and the costs of gasoline and cooking gas is up 25 percent.

The project – which tracks political violence and protests in Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America — said more than 7,600 of the new deaths occurred this year.

Special Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council Monday both sides of the conflict have agreed to a phase one deployment plan around Hodeidah, a critical location for distribution of aid.

“My primary responsibility in the next few weeks will be to winnow down differences between the parties so that when they meet they can, in all efficiency, be asked to answer precise questions about the nature of the arrangements to end the war,” Griffiths said.

This year, Congress passed a resolution to end U.S. involvement in Yemen, but the measure was vetoed Tuesday by President Donald Trump. The U.S. military has supported Saudi forces by refueling aircraft and assisting with aerial targeting efforts.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, a number of Western countries, the US, the UK, and France in particular, are accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance

Source: Agencies.