Word Association (2024)

[webfact]

U.N. warns if no Yemen aid access, world will see largest famine in decades

By Michelle Nichols

 

Saida Ahmed Baghili, 18, lies on a bed at the al-Thawra hospital where she receives treatment for severe malnutrition in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Abduljabbar Zeyad/File photo

 

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock warned on Wednesday that if a Saudi-led military coalition did not allow humanitarian aid access to Yemen then it would cause "the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims."

 

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthi movement in neighbouring Yemen said on Monday it had closed all air, land and sea ports to the Arabian Peninsula country to stem the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran.

 

The move, which follows the interception of a missile fired towards the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday, is likely to worsen a humanitarian crisis in Yemen that according to the United Nations has pushed some seven million people to the brink of famine and left nearly 900,000 infected with cholera.

 

Lowcock, who visited Yemen late last month, briefed the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors at the request of Sweden.

"I have told the council that unless those measures are lifted ... there will be a famine in Yemen," he told reporters. "It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims."

 

He said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir earlier on Wednesday and called for an immediate resumption of humanitarian access.

 

Lowcock said the U.N.'s World Food Programme was feeding seven million people a month in Yemen. "What we need is a winding down of the blockade ... so that we can save the lives of those people," he said.

 

The U.N. Security Council expressed concern about the humanitarian situation, Italian U.N. Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi, council president for November, said after Lowcock's briefing.

 

"The members of the Security Council emphasized ... the importance of keeping all Yemen's ports and airports functioning, including Hodeidah port, as a critical lifeline for humanitarian support and other essential supplies," Cardi said.

 

The United Nations and international aid organizations have long criticized the coalition for blocking aid access, especially to north Yemen, which is held by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

 

"Humanitarian access through the ports was inadequate even before the measures that were announced on the 6th November," said Lowcock, adding that there had also been no U.N. flights allowed into Yemen since Monday.

 

The Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the Houthis since they seized parts of Yemen in 2015, including the capital Sanaa, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee.

 

Lowcock called for an immediate resumption of U.N. and other aid flights to Sanaa and Aden, assurances from the coalition that there would be no further disruptions to those flights, and immediate resumption of humanitarian and commercial port access.

 

He also called for the coalition to allow a WFP ship to be pre-positioned off Aden and assurances that there would be no further disruption to its functions and demanded that all vessels that have passed U.N. inspection be allowed to offload.

 

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-09

[BuaBS]

Iran should help them .

[ilostmypassword]

If Iran or Syria were doing this, with or without Russian help,  the usual parties would be denouncing them as evil. But since it's Saudi Arabia, with backing from among other nations, the USA, they're just going to call it a mess or a tragedy or say that there are no easy answers.

[Morch]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

If Iran or Syria were doing this, with or without Russian help,  the usual parties would be denouncing them as evil. But since it's Saudi Arabia, with backing from among other nations, the USA, they're just going to call it a mess or a tragedy or say that there are no easy answers.

 

Countries are not usually swayed by their actions being described as wrong or evil in the UN. That goes all the countries you mentioned, and then some.

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Morch said:

 

Countries are not usually swayed by their actions being described as wrong or evil in the UN. That goes all the countries you mentioned, and then some.

Actually, I was referring to posters on thaivisa. On the other hand, if the USA were to distance itself a bit from Saudi Arabia's actions as Obama once did...but I guess Trump doesn't want to alienate his besties.

[Morch]

15 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Actually, I was referring to posters on thaivisa. On the other hand, if the USA were to distance itself a bit from Saudi Arabia's actions as Obama once did...but I guess Trump doesn't want to alienate his besties.

 

Unless much mistaken there were whines, from "usual parties" about Obama not going far enough, and alternately, inflating the scope of the "distancing". If you point was about co-opting of events and OPs in "support" of pet agendas, nothing new about that.

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, Morch said:

 

Unless much mistaken there were whines, from "usual parties" about Obama not going far enough, and alternately, inflating the scope of the "distancing". If you point was about co-opting of events and OPs in "support" of pet agendas, nothing new about that.

Actually, there were some people who claimed that the Saudis weren't enraged by Obama's drawing back from support of the Yemen War.

[ilostmypassword]

Now that I think about it, what's the big deal? It's not like Saudi Arabia is using chemical weapons. 

[mrwebb8825]

Just deliver all the aid to Saudi and let them bring it in where they know it won't help the people they're fighting. Might be just enough unwanted attention to give pause.

[ilostmypassword]

14 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Just deliver all the aid to Saudi and let them bring it in where they know it won't help the people they're fighting. Might be just enough unwanted attention to give pause.

Because the Saudis have so much experience in this kind of thing.

[Morch]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

Actually, there were some people who claimed that the Saudis weren't enraged by Obama's drawing back from support of the Yemen War.

 

Guess you know what you're on about.

[Morch]

50 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Just deliver all the aid to Saudi and let them bring it in where they know it won't help the people they're fighting. Might be just enough unwanted attention to give pause.

Goodwill is a rare commodity in the ME. And given the country's recent "anti-corruption" crackdown, why trust them with anything of the sort? That is, if the above was not contrived...

 

36 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Because the Saudis have so much experience in this kind of thing.

They actually do - handling the yearly pilgrimage, playing host to quite a bit of refugees and funding such efforts elsewhere. That it's irrelevant as it would never happen in the context of the OP is another matter.

[ilostmypassword]

6 minutes ago, Morch said:

.

 

They actually do - handling the yearly pilgrimage, playing host to quite a bit of refugees and funding such efforts elsewhere. That it's irrelevant as it would never happen in the context of the OP is another matter.

fair enough

[Rancid]

Doesn't Saudi chair the laughable human rights council? The reality is that Saudi wants some Yemeni resources and they will take it one way or another and couldn't care less how many die. Meanwhile the UK and US arms manufacturers are making a killing. Rumors also that UK pilots flying some of those sorties...you know the ones where weddings and funerals get bombed. Really glad we are the good guys...aren't we?

[Morch]

23 minutes ago, Rancid said:

Doesn't Saudi chair the laughable human rights council? The reality is that Saudi wants some Yemeni resources and they will take it one way or another and couldn't care less how many die. Meanwhile the UK and US arms manufacturers are making a killing. Rumors also that UK pilots flying some of those sorties...you know the ones where weddings and funerals get bombed. Really glad we are the good guys...aren't we?

 

I don't believe Saudi Arabia currently chair it.

What "Yemeni resources" would these be?

Why focus on USA and UK arms sales, but leave out Russian ones?

And while rumor may be true, it would be so much more easier to address if you'd bother supporting this by...anything.

Really glad that you found yet another topic for co-opted mass self flagellation.