New Saudi Blockade of Yemen Could Cost Lives, Aid Groups Warn
Yamanyoon- 8 Nov 2017
Fifteen humanitarian relief groups expressed growing alarm on Wednesday over Saudi Arabia’s three-day-old blockade of entry points to Yemen, warning that the action had imperiled lifesaving assistance to millions.
Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country, is struggling with an acute hunger crisis that has affected at least 17 million people — more than half the population — and a cholera scourge that has sickened nearly one million.
The aid groups said in a statement that the blockade, which stopped deliveries at all points of entry to Yemen, had effectively barred emergency assistance from reaching Yemeni civilians, despite Saudi assurances that the humanitarian operations would be allowed to continue.
“Given the current acute food-security crisis and cholera epidemic, any delays to the restoration and expansion of humanitarian access will cost the lives of women, men, girls and boys across the whole of Yemen,” the statement said.
The groups warned that “in the absence of clarity and detail from the Coalition, worrying questions remain about the extent and duration of these measures and their expected impact on the civilian population.”
Without a quick end to the blockade, they said, “we fear an already catastrophic humanitarian and economic crisis will get substantially worse.”
The signers included some of the most prominent international aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam and Save the Children.
The United Nations, which has described Yemen as home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has also been seeking clarity about when the Saudi blockade will ease.
“Closing #Yemen’s land, sea & air ports will only aggravate the dire humanitarian situation,” George Khoury, the director of United Nations humanitarian operations in Yemen, said on Twitter on Wednesday.
Source: The New York Times