UN urges Saudi-led coalition to end Yemen blockade

Geneva, November 17: The United Nations on Thursday urged Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to fully lift its blockade of the country and also warned that untold thousands would die if it stayed in place. Notably, Yemen is suffering drastically from dual attack i.e from civil war and cholera that has killed thousands of innocent civilians.

 

The three United Nations agencies including World Health Programme, World Food Programme and UNICEF has issued an urgent appeal for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to fully lift its blockade of the country and also further warned that thousands would die if it stayed in place.

The three agencies also noted that the closure of rebel-held ports is making an already catastrophic situation far worse. The statement from David Beasley, Anthony Lake and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus read, “The cost of this blockade is being measured in the number of lives that are lost.” “Together, we issue another urgent appeal for the coalition to permit entry of lifesaving supplies to Yemen in response to what is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” the statement added.

The three agencies warned Saudi-led coalition that without fresh supplies, untold thousands would die as the government-controlled ports lacked the capacity required for the volumes of commercial and humanitarian cargo previously handled by Hudaydah and Saleef, and that supplies in the country were running dangerously low.

Meanwhile, UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric said, Secretary General Antonio Guterres is very much disappointed that the Saudi-led coalition is refusing to lift its blockade of Yemen. Stephane Dujarric also said that Guterres wrote to the Saudi ambassador to ask for an end to the blockade and to reopen the key ports of Hodeida and Saleef in rebel-held territory.

Earlier, on November 9 of this year, the United Nations Security Council has asked the Saudi-led military coalition to keep all Yemen air and seaports for the generous aid deliveries as the people in Yemen are suffering from cholera to which Kingdom refused. On October 3 of this year, UN blacklisted Saudi-led coalition for killing and maiming children during its military campaign against Yemen. On the other side,

Yemen’s civil war erupted in the year 2015 between two factions which has led to the killings of 10,000 of civilians due to air strikes. One is Houthi forces controlling the capital Sana'a and allied with forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have clashed with forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, based in Aden. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also carried out attacks, with AQAP controlling swathes of territory in the hinterlands, and along stretches of the coast while cholera has led the situation worst in Yemen. Yemen is also battling one of the world's worst outbreaks of cholera that has left nearly one million people ill and killed 2,200 people.