UN urges Riyadh to keep Yemen’s aid lifeline open
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations urged the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to reopen an aid lifeline to bring food and medicine into Yemen, whose 7 million inhabitants are facing famine in a country that is already in one the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen said on Monday it would close all air, land and sea ports to the Arabian Peninsula country to stem the flow of arms from Iran.
The Saudis and their allies say the Houthis get weapons from their arch-foe, Iran. Iran denies the charges and blames the conflict in Yemen on Riyadh.
Humanitarian operations – including UN aid flights – are blocked because air and sea ports in Yemen are closed, Jens Laerke of the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs told a news briefing on Tuesday.
The Saudi-led coalition has told the world body to “inform all commercial vessels at Hodeidah and Saleef ports to leave,” he said, referring to Red Sea ports controlled by the Houthis.
“We call for all air and sea ports to remain open to ensure food, fuel and medicines can enter the country,” Laerke said.
“The situation is catastrophic in Yemen. It is the worst food crisis we are looking at in the world today. Seven million people are on the brink of famine. Millions of people being kept alive by our humanitarian operations,” he said.
The price of fuel jumped 60% “overnight” and the price of cooking gas doubled.
“We hear reports this morning of prices of cooking gas and petrol for cars and so on already spiraling out of control,” Laerke said. “So this is an access problem of colossal dimensions right now.”