UN warns of escalation of war in Yemen; "Aid to 8 million people likely to be cut off from March"
UN officials said Tuesday that Yemen's seven-year war has escalated dangerously in recent months, with the death toll in January reaching a three-year high and that eight million Yemenis could lose their humanitarian aid by next month if urgent funding is not provided.
Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Representative for Yemen, and Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, presented a picture of the situation in the Arab world's poorest country, which continues to deteriorate.
According to them, the war-torn areas in Yemen expanded several times over the past month, and by the end of January, two-thirds of UN aid programs had been suspended.
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and large swathes of the country's north, forcing the government to flee to southern Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia.
About a year later, a Saudi-led military coalition, backed by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, entered the war against the Houthis, who are backed by Iran. Riyadh's goal was to restore Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to power.
Mr. Grundberg warned the UN Security Council that recent Houthi attacks on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia illustrate how the conflict could spiral out of control unless urgent action is taken by the parties to the conflict in Yemen, the region and the international community to end the war.
The Arab coalition airstrike on the Houthi-held Saada detention center, he said, “caused the worst civilian casualties in three years.” The UN official also warned of increased airstrikes in Yemen, including on residential areas in Sanaa and the port of Hodeidah.
Mr. Griffiths also said that airstrikes, bombings and small arms fire left more than 650 dead and wounded in January, the highest number in at least three years.
He further warned that aid agencies' budgets are rapidly running out, forcing them to suspend their programs, with the UN World Food Program cutting food rations for eight million people in December, and these eight million may no longer receive any food from March.
According to the UN Humanitarian Assistance Office, the organization's 2021 aid plan for Yemen required a budget of $3.85 billion, but was only able to provide $2.27 billion, the lowest level of assistance since 2015. The 2022 plan has not yet been published.
Source: Radio Farda
