UN warns of famine after Yemen talks sputter
In an interview with Al-Monitor, the top UN aid official in Yemen warned that 10 million more people are at risk of starving if fighting in the war-torn country doesn’t stop.
The United Nations is trying to stop another 10 million more Yemenis from becoming dependent on aid by the end of the year, the intergovernmental organization’s top humanitarian official in Yemen told Al-Monitor.
Just weeks after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels failed to appear for UN-backed talks in early September, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande said that fewer ships are coming into the country than at “virtually any stage” of the war.
More than 8 million Yemenis depend on UN aid to survive, Grande said. That’s even as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates promised to open routes out of the embattled port city of Hodeidah, the entry point for three-quarters of Yemen’s aid, and agreed to evacuate sick Yemenis who can’t be treated in the war-ravaged country.
“The 10 million additional people who depend on the market for food are the real issue,” Grande said in a Skype interview from Sanaa, where the UN mission is based. “If shippers don’t berth at northern ports, these people aren’t able to buy the food they need. It’s painfully clear that shippers just don’t have the confidence to enter northern Yemen where they are desperately needed.”
