Massive Famine Could Threaten Opportunity for Peace in Yemen, UN Warns
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Top UN officials have warned that a massive famine in Yemen could wipe out fresh peace efforts in the impoverished country, which has been suffering from a brutal war imposed by Saudi Arabia for the past six years.
UN Yemen mediator Martin Griffiths also called for a stop to an offensive by the Houthi movement on the government-held city of Marib, warning “the quest for territorial gain by force threatens all of the prospects of the peace process.”
Earlier this month, Yemen's army soldiers and their allied fighters from Popular Committees resumed an offensive to take control of oil-rich Ma’rib, Hadi’s last urban stronghold in northern Yemen, which is some 120 km east of the capital Sana’a.
New American President Joe Biden claims that ending the conflict in Yemen is a priority for his administration, appointing a special envoy on Yemen and reportedly ending US support for offensive operations by Saudi Arabia.
“International support for ending the conflict is indispensable, and this offers us a new opportunity to reopen space for a negotiated solution,” Griffiths told the 15-member Security Council.
However, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock then warned: “There’s an important opportunity right now to help Yemen move towards lasting peace ... but that opportunity will disappear, it will be wasted, if Yemen tips into a massive famine.”
Lowcock further said that about 16 million people in Yemen are going hungry and five million of those people are “just one step away from famine.”
Some 400,000 children under the age of 5 are severely malnourished, he said. “Those children are in their last weeks and months,” he warned. “They are starving to death.”
The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the people in need of help, according to Press TV.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 to bring Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, back to power and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.
Yemen's popular forces, however, have gone from strength to strength against the Saudi invaders, leaving the Saudi-led coalition forces bogged down in Yemen.
At least 80 percent of the 28-million-strong population in Yemen is reliant on aid to survive in what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
UN agencies have already warned that around 400,000 Yemeni children aged under five are in danger of losing life this year due to acute malnutrition.
The war has destroyed or closed half of Yemen’s hospitals and clinics, leaving the people helpless particularly at a time when they are in desperate need of medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
