Yemen calls for international action on its humanitarian crisis

The Yemeni government yesterday called on the international community to take urgent measures to deal with the country’s humanitarian crisis.

The call was made by the internationally-backed Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik, during his meeting with a high-level European delegation in the country’s temporary capital, Aden. The official Saba news agency reported that the delegation was led by the Deputy Director General of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Michael Koehler.

During the meeting, Abdulmalik said that the “repeated warnings made by the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen are worrying.”

“I call for a serious approach to address the root of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which are represented in the continuation of the war and the intransigence of the Houthi militia and its rejection of peace initiatives,” the Yemeni premier said.

Impoverished Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

The war, in which the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) back the Saudi-led coalition, has claimed the lives of more than 377,000 Yemenis and left 80 per cent of the population – about 30 million people – dependent on aid to survive, according to UN data. As a result, the international body has described the situation in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi-led coalition continues its war on Yemen – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

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