Humanitarian crisis fears in war-torn Yemen
ADEN: Fears were growing of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen after Saudi-backed government forces launched a series of attacks on rebel-held Hodeida, as a charity warned that more than five million children were at risk of famine in the war-torn state.
The Houthi rebels accused the government and its Saudi-led allies of deliberately targeting food warehouses as the coalition said that it had resumed a “military operation to liberate Hodeida and its port”.
Pro-government forces and medical sources in Hodeida province said 40 Houthis had been killed around the embattled city since Monday night.
The fight for Hodeida, which the Houthis seized in 2014, was put on hold for 11 weeks as the United Nations struggled to bring warring parties to peace talks in Geneva.
But the talks collapsed earlier this month after the northern Yemeni rebels refused to attend.
The Red Sea port city is a vital lifeline for aid shipments to Yemen, the most impoverished country in the Arab world.
The UN has warned that any major fighting could halt food distribution to eight million Yemenis who depend on aid to survive.
Disruption to supplies coming through Hodeida could “cause starvation on an unprecedented scale”, charity Save the Children said in a report yesterday.
An extra one million children now risk falling into famine as food and fuel prices soar, bringing the total to 5.2 million, the charity said.
Brigadier-General Ali al-Taniji, commander of coalition forces on Yemen’s west coast, confirmed on Tuesday that the alliance had launched an operation in Hodeida, in a statement to state media in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s main partner in the coalition.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths was due in Riyadh yesterday, having left the Yemeni capital Sanaa after a three-day trip.