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The deputy humanitarian chief of the United Nations said that Yemen’s economy is collapsing, the humanitarian crisis is worsening, and the conflict in the poorest country in the Arab world is becoming more and more intense.
Assistant Secretary-General Ramesh Rajasingham made harsh remarks when briefing the UN Security Council on Thursday. More than 20 million Yemenis — two-thirds of the total population — need humanitarian assistance, but he said aid agencies are “starting to run out of funds again”.
Rajasingham added that aid agencies are now helping nearly 13 million people across the country, an increase of about 3 million from a few months ago. “Our best assessment is that this expansion has greatly delayed the immediate risk of a large-scale famine.”
But he warned that aid agencies do not have enough funds to maintain this scale, “in the coming weeks and months, food aid for up to 4 million people may be reduced.” “By the end of this year, this number will decrease. “. It may increase to 5 million people”.
Raja Singham said: “We call on everyone to do everything possible to maintain the momentum we have built in the past few months and prevent famine.”
#Yemen Violent day by day. Fighting in Malibu and elsewhere is causing terrible losses to civilians. At the same time, humanitarians are running out of funds and will soon have to cut plans for millions of people.I am right today #Security Council: https://t.co/xHYFPpfZvF pic.twitter.com/xY4xrLlLKR
— Ramesh Rajahingham (@rajasingham_UN) October 14, 2021
Since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital Sana’a and most of the northern part of the country, Yemen has been turbulent due to the civil war, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee to the south and then to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi-led coalition entered the war with the support of the United States in March 2015 in an effort to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power and support his government.
Despite relentless air strikes and ground fighting, the war has largely deteriorated into a deadlock and triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Since then, the United States has suspended its direct participation in the conflict.
More than 20 million Yemenis-two-thirds of the total population-need humanitarian assistance [File: Mohammed Huwais/AFP]In early 2020, the Houthis launched an offensive in Malibu province, which is mainly controlled by the government, killing thousands of young people and leaving thousands of displaced civilians living in fear of violence. move Place.
On Thursday, tribal leaders and Yemeni officials stated that the fighting around Malibu in the past 24 hours has killed at least 140 fighters on both sides. They stated that the conflict occurred in the Abdiya and al-Jubah areas.
In briefing the Security Council, Raja Singham said that the Houthis had “intensified the barbaric attack on Malibu, and occupied more territory there and the neighboring areas of Shabwa province in the south”.
Ongoing battle
He also mentioned the clashes between rival armed groups in the southern city of Aden earlier this month-after the Houthis drove them out of Sana’a and the north, the Hadi government established its headquarters there-and Fighting, artillery and air raids continued in the northwest of Sa’ada and the west of Hajj, and Hodeidah province.
In September, 235 civilians were killed or injured, the second-highest number in two years, while the fighting in Malibu is causing “particularly serious civilian casualties”. In September, nearly 10,000 people were displaced, the second-highest number in two years. Numbers, Raja Singham said.
Hans Grundberg, the new UN special envoy for Yemen who took office last month, told the Security Council that he has held meetings with government and Houthi government officials, as well as key regional and international officials, to discuss how to seek politics. solution. Restore peace in Yemen.
“The trust gap between the warring parties is very large, and it is expanding,” he said in a virtual briefing. Grundberg said that he made it clear that although progress should be made on urgent humanitarian and economic issues, urgent political negotiations without preconditions are essential for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.
“Let us not deceive ourselves, this will be a difficult and complicated task, it will take time, but it must be done,” Grundberg said. “The past few weeks have illustrated the tension between the pace of war and economic collapse, and on the other hand the time required to design and negotiate a viable path forward.”
Raja Singham reiterated that Yemen’s economic collapse is “promoting most of the country’s needs-including the risk of famine.”
He said that almost everything in Yemen is imported. The Yemeni rial in Aden is about 1,270 rials to the US dollar, which is nearly six times higher than before the war, and that fewer and fewer goods arrive at the country’s ports. He said that commercial food imports at the main ports of Hodeida and Saleef were 8% lower than the average level in September last year, and that “fuel imports have dropped by 64%, which is shocking.”
He urged immediate measures to prevent the country’s economic collapse, including the injection of foreign exchange through the central bank, which would reduce prices as quickly as in the past, as well as the full opening of all ports and the removal of import restrictions on Hudaydah and Salif. , And pay the salaries of civil servants.
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