Aid agencies call for life-saving assistance to crisis-hit Yemen

Rasa - International aid agencies have demanded life-saving support to millions of civilians in Yemen, who are struggling to survive starvation and disease in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s atrocious aerial bombardment campaign.

News ID: 429201

Date: 25 April 2017 - 23:12

RNA - On Monday, Britain-based Oxfam urged donor nations to provide aid for the Yemeni people rather than arms for the aggressors.

“Many areas of Yemen are on the brink of famine, and the cause of such extreme starvation is political,” it said in a statement on the eve of a United Nations conference in Geneva to seek aid pledges for the Arab country.

The British charity further argued that Western governments are participating in the confab “while they continue to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment to parties to the conflict.”

The food crisis could deteriorate in case the international community fails to send a clear message that Saudi-led airstrikes against Yemen's western port city of Hudaydah, which serves as a primary entry point for humanitarian aid and fuel for the Arab country, would be “totally unacceptable”, Oxfam noted.

Alexander Ventura, the emergency coordinator and head of mission in Yemen for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also said, “The health system is at the verge of collapse and medical services are under fire.” “Bilateral and institutional donors must prioritize assistance to the country's health system to avoid total collapse. Doctors and nurses have not been paid in six months.”

Ventura added civilians are “deliberately targeted” by all warring sides in the Yemeni conflict, adding that severe acute malnutrition is on the rise.

“Children are more at risk of dying from preventable diseases, pregnant women are unable to deliver safely and people suffering chronic conditions like renal failure are in need of dialysis. Silent deaths must be prevented,” he said.

Furthermore, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has appealed for life-saving assistance to millions of crisis-stricken Yemenis, calling on all parties in the conflict to allow unimpeded humanitarian access.

“The World Food Program is mounting three different types of interventions to help people, general food distribution of in kind food assistance, commodity vouchers and also specialized nutrition assistance. Altogether that is meant to reach 9.1 million people. However, due to funding constraints and access restrictions, we are unfortunately not able to help the number of people that we would like to,” said Stephen Anderson, the WFP representative and country director in Yemen.

Yemeni snipers shoot dead four Saudi troopers

Meanwhile, Yemeni snipers have shot dead four Saudi troopers in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Jizan in response to Riyadh’s deadly airstrikes against their country.

Yemeni snipers targeted a Saudi soldier in the al-Ghawiyah military base of the Jizan region, located 969 kilometers south of the capital Riyadh, on Monday afternoon. Yemeni forces also fatally shot three soldiers at al-Farizeh base of the same region.

US drone kills 7 in central Yemen

In another development, at least seven people lost their lives when a US unmanned aerial vehicle carried out an assassination strike in Yemen's central province of Shabwah.

Residents and a local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that the air raid took place in the As-Said district of the province the previous afternoon when a car was travelling along a road there.

The vehicle, purportedly carrying four suspected al-Qaeda militants, was completely destroyed in the drone strike. Three civilians passing nearby were also hit and killed.

The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken advantage of the chaos and breakdown of security in Yemen to tighten its grip on the southern and southeastern parts of the Arab country.

The US carries out drone attacks in Yemen and several other countries, claiming to be targeting al-Qaeda elements; but, local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The drone strikes in Yemen continue alongside the Saudi military aggression against the conflict-ridden country.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to bring back resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh, to power and to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The Riyadh regime has, however, failed to reach its goals despite suffering great expense.

The military aggression has claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people, most of them civilians.

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