Yemen One Step from Famine, UN Declares Highest-level Humanitarian Emergency
Local Editor
The United Nations on Wednesday declared its highest-level humanitarian emergency in Yemen, where over 80 percent of the population needs assistance.
UN officials have said the Middle East's most impoverished country is a step away from famine.
Humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien convened a meeting of UN agencies early Wednesday, and all agreed to declare a Level 3 humanitarian emergency in Yemen for six months.
The UN humanitarian office said the declaration of a top-level emergency mobilizes UN-wide staffing and funding to scale up aid delivery.
Last week the UN envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the country is "one step" from famine. He urged all parties to the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends July 17, to allow desperately needed aid to be delivered.
An attempt last month at UN-led talks among Yemeni parties in Geneva failed to reach an agreement.
21 million Yemeni people are in desperate need of aid, including children who are caught in the middle of a conflict.
A Saudi-led and US-backed coalition began launching airstrikes against Yemen on March 26, and a near-blockade of Yemen's ports has made it very difficult to deliver humanitarian aid.
International rights groups have condemned the blockade. "The rising civilian casualties from the fighting could become dwarfed by the harm caused to civilians by the coalition blockade on fuel, if it continues," Human Rights Watch [HRW] director Joe Stork said in May. "It is unclear how much longer Yemen's remaining hospitals have before the lights go out."
The coalition's blockade of fuel is in violation of the laws of war, according to HRW. "Fuel should be allowed to go through whether or not a proposed cease-fire takes effect," said a statement on the group's website.
HRW also blasted the coalition for 13 airstrikes in May that killed dozens of civilians and could constitute war crimes. It called on the US, which has provided logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led campaign, to press for an investigation into the airstrikes.
According to the World Health Organization's latest figures, 3,083 people have died as a result of the conflict, and 14,324 people have been injured, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
He said over 21.1 million people in Yemen need aid, nearly 13 million face "a food security crisis," and 9.4 million have little or no access to water, raising the risk of water-borne diseases, including cholera.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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