Conflict has set Yemen development back by quarter of a century, says UN

DPA

THE devastating conflict in Yemen has put the country’s development back by 25 years, the leader of the United Nations Development Programme said on Monday.

After four years of war Yemen had been “literally... thrown back almost quarter of a century in term of its development,” Achim Steiner said at an event held by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Eighty per cent of the 28-million-strong population were reliant on aid and 10 million people were literally one meal away from starvation, he said. Houthi rebels have been fighting the internationally recognized government since 2014. The government is backed by a Saudi-led coalition whose airstrikes have devastated Yemeni infrastructure and caused thousands of civilians deaths.

Steiner said the international community had “sadly... waited far too long” until those involved in the conflict had concluded that the war could not be resolved on its own and could not be won. Nevertheless Steiner remained hopeful about the future. The recent withdrawal of Houthi rebels from the strategically important Red Sea port of Hodeida - through which 80 % of Yemen’s imports enters.