UN Calls for urgent ‘humanitarian pause’ in Yemen

The United Nations has called for an immediate “humanitarian pause” of at least a few hours each day in Yemen to allow deliveries of urgently needed humanitarian aid to the conflict-weary country.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross managed to safely land two planes carrying medical aid in Sana’a on Friday, the first of its kind to reach the Yemeni capital since the start of Saudi airstrikes against the country in late March. Earlier this week, a boatload of aid was also taken to Aden by Doctors Without Borders.

Yet, this aid is far from sufficient according to Johannes Van der Klaauw, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Yemen. “We must be able, as aid workers, to safely deliver this life-saving assistance in all affected areas in Yemen. To this end, I have been calling, and doing it again this morning, on all the parties for an immediate humanitarian pause in this conflict,” he said speaking to reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.

"We need many more of these flights coming in, many more of these boats coming in," Van der Klaauw stated, stressing the necessity that the airspace over Sana’a be cleared for "a few hours at least" each day to allow the aid to get in.

He described the crisis in Yemen as “one of the largest and most complex humanitarian emergencies in the world” that needs an immediate “window of opportunity” to be opened through bringing humanitarian aid to desperate Yemeni people.

“Many areas in the country are also experiencing frequent power cuts, shortages of water and fuel. In the second city of the country, Aden, one million people risk being cut off from access to clean drinking water within a matter of days,” he added.

“We should not forget that the current conflict in Yemen takes place against the backdrop of a humanitarian crisis of a protracted nature and of a size and a complexity which is amongst the largest in the world,” Van der Klaauw said, adding, “That was already the case before, and this current conflict has aggravated the situation and has made the population increasingly vulnerable.”

The UN refugee agency is getting ready to receive about 130,000 refugees who managed to escape the conflict in Yemen and flee to Africa by boat, as the agency is working hard to help hundreds of thousands of other refugees and Yemenis under threat inside the country, said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on Friday.

"With 14 out of Yemen's 22 governorates affected by air strikes or armed conflict, UNHCR yesterday issued a position paper to governments calling on all countries to allow civilians fleeing Yemen access to their territories," he said.

“The refugees tell us many more people are trying to leave Yemen but are being prevented from doing so by fuel shortages and high fees charged by boat operators,” Edwards added.  

A spokesperson for the Yemeni army, fighting alongside Ansarullah fighters, said on Thursday that at least 1,000 people, including 200 children, have been killed in the Saudi airstrikes.

He added that 15,000 others have also been injured since the start of the Saudi military campaign.

Saudi Arabia started its air campaign against Yemen on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

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