Two UN senior officials called on Houthis in Yemen to immediately and unconditionally release all detained aid workers of the UN, non-government organizations and diplomatic missions.
During a UN Security Council session on Thursday, Hans Grundberg – the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, and Lisa Doughten – Director, Financing and Partnerships Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), briefed the Council members on the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Grundberg said the country is ‘facing a clamp down by Ansar Allah on the humanitarian and civic space’. Dozens of men and women, among which are 13 UN personnel, including one of his own staff members, are still being detained in unknown locations, he noted.
These detentions are in addition to Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) staff who have been detained since 2021 and 2023 respectively, he said.
Ans
ar Allah continues to attack ships in the Red Sea, and the United States and the United Kingdom have continued their strikes on military targets, Grundberg stated. While levels of violence along the front lines remain relatively contained compared to before the 2022 truce, there are military preparations and reinforcements accompanied by continuous threats of a return to war. “I remain determined to achieve the task entrusted to me by this Council: to support the resumption of an inclusive Yemeni-led political transition,” Grundberg said.
Meanwhile, Doughten said that over the past 10 days, heavy rainfall and flash flooding hit several governorates in Yemen, damaging homes, farms and public infrastructure.
Briefing the Council on behalf of Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya, she said that about 69,500 families have been directly affected, with many losing their homes and sources of livelihood, adding that some 98 people have been killed, and
more than 600 others injured. In response, humanitarian partners have provided immediate life-saving assistance, delivered critical medical supplies to local hospitals and deployed dozens of mobile health teams to affected areas.
However, a lack of adequate funding continues to undermine efforts to address critical needs across Yemen, Doughten cautioned.
Preventing the spread of cholera is one area where additional funds are urgently needed, she noted. Although the UN-led multi-agency cholera response plan is currently 60 per cent funded, this was based on an initial estimate of 60,000 cholera cases between April and September, she affirmed. Regrettably, as of the beginning of August, the number of suspected cases across the country has swelled to more than 147,000, she said.
“The people of Yemen cannot afford the devastating toll of further conflict,” Doughten stated.
She stressed: “Their ability to recover from the devastation of the conflict, address increasing humanitarian needs and take concrete step
s towards a more promising and stable future all depend on locking in progress on peace.”
Source : Kuwait News Agency