Ireland’s ambassador to the United Nations, Geraldine Byrne Nason, has said that “the international community is tired of the continuing war in Yemen.”
In press statements published on Thursday, Nason said, “There are major obstacles that prevented a ceasefire agreement in Yemen, despite the efforts made by former United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths.”
“I am concerned that after seven years of war, there is a kind of international fatigue and we do not see the issue of Yemen at the forefront in the media,” she added.
She added, “We know that there are not only hungry people in Yemen, but people who are starving, and we want an end to that.”
She expressed hope that the new UN envoy, Hans Grundberg, would make progress in the Yemeni issue.
“We have to be optimistic. There’s war and the victims are almost forgotten, we can’t allow that to happen and we have to find a solution,” she said.
Earlier, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen, Martin Griffiths announced that “more than 5 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine and with it under threat of epidemics and diseases.”
During his first briefing on Yemen’s humanitarian and political developments to the UN Security Council, Griffiths stated, “It is necessary to find a solution to the problem of aid delivery, and this is what the United Nations is trying to address.”
He also touched on the possibility of “Saudi Arabia preventing money transfers to Yemen,” considering that this constitutes “an additional danger to the humanitarian situation in the country.”
Griffiths explained that “transporting materials to Aden instead of Hodeidah increases expenditures on merchants who have to transport materials to Sana’a by land.”
Griffiths stressed that “the war is causing the collapse of the economy,” calling for “a ceasefire to find a political solution in Yemen.”
It is noteworthy that the World Bank warned on August 4, that about 70% of Yemen’s population of 30 million is at risk of starvation.
Earlier in April, the United Nations said that “3.6 million Yemenis face an emergency food shortage,” adding that “400,000 Yemeni children are at risk of starvation.”
sources: Agencies