Saudi agrees to re-open Hodeidah port for 30 days to provide aid in war-torn Yemen
Riyadh, December 21: Finally, Saudi Arabia has agreed to re-open Hodeidah port for a minimum of 30 days to provide food aid and commercial fuel to Yemen which is suffering from the disastrous outbreak of cholera. Notably, the death toll has surged to 2,225 while one million people are affected due to cholera in a war-torn Yemen.
However, the decision from Saudi Arabia to re-open Hodeidah port for a minimum of 30 days came after the United Nations, United Kingdom and the United States pot extreme pressure on Kingdom. Aid agencies, including the UN, have been warning that a month-long blockade on the port was cutting off aid to nearly 70% of those desperately in need of humanitarian relief.
In a statement published on the Saudi government-run news agency, the coalition leadership said, “The port of Hodeidah will remain open for humanitarian and relief supplies and the entry of commercial vessels, including fuel and food vessels, for a period of 30 days.”
The aid agencies officials said the first fuel vessel to be cleared to enter Hodeidah in over a month was due to dock in the next 24 hours. Fuel is vital to pump water, transport food and mill grain. Yemen aid agencies on the ground also said they expected shipments to start moving shortly.
Interestingly, the move of Kingdom comes after the United States and United Nations 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.
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.