No Ships in Yemen’s Key Port Despite Saudi Arabia Claim of Lifting Blockade

Following a massive outcry from the UN and various aid agencies which warned of a humanitarian disaster, Riyadh agreed to lift the blockade of the port of Hudaydah temporarily on December 20, but two weeks after the announcement, the port remains empty, and no merchant or relief vessels are seen anchored at its harbor and no much-needed aid is flowing into the country suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe, RT reported.

“The port of Hudaydah will remain open for humanitarian and relief supplies and the entry of commercial vessels, including fuel and food vessels, for a period of 30 days”, the Saudis said at the time.

Meantime, the port manager declared that the sea-hub had processed only two vessels that had old permits. The blockade, he stressed, is till very much in effect.

“If the blockade isn’t lifted, we won’t be able even to imagine its consequences. Humanitarian organizations have amplified its warnings of the worst catastrophe in the history of Yemeni people,” Yahya Sharaf, Deputy Head of the Red Sea Port Authority in Hudaydah, told RT.

Meanwhile, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, noted some “progress” in opening Yemen’s critical Red Sea ports to commercial fuel and food shipments, and announced the allocation of $50 million of aid relief amid ever-growing concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe.

With no ships in sight in Hudaydah, it’s hard to convince the locals that aid and hope is on its way. For now, some 4,000 port workers are deprived of any means to survive.

Akram Abdo, a supervisor at the harbor noted that “As you can see, the port of Hudaydah is empty, there are no ships at the berths.”

“As far as we know the decision stands to reopen the port of Hudaydah temporarily. The flow remains slow,” Ahmed Benchmsi from Human Rights Watch said, adding that “It has been underlined repeatedly by the whole human rights and humanitarian community that the port of Hodeidah needs to be open for commercial and humanitarian goods. Full stop. That’s it. There should be no condition or timeline to that.”

Benchmsi stressed that the blockade continues to endanger the lives of civilians, including women and children, calling the restriction a “violation of international humanitarian law.”

“You have to remember that Yemen is country that depends on imports. Ninety percent of its needs are from imports,” Yehia Khalil from the Yemeni Red Cross explained in an interview with RT, adding that “When you have restrictions on imports, when people cannot have enough to eat and to feed their families every day, this is when you see the bigger picture of things.”

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 15,500 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

Over 75 percent of Yemen’s 27 million population, including 11.3 million children, are in dire need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN. At least 16 million people do not have access to clean water and proper sanitation, while over 60 percent of Yemenis are on the brink of starvation.