Save the Children Looks for Routes Into Yemen's Al Hudaydah to Issue Life-Saving Food Aid
Save the Children is looking for alternative routes to reach Yemen's besieged port city of Al Hudaydah to provide humanitarian aid, Sylvia Ghaly, Save the Children's director of advocacy, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) Save the Children is looking for alternative routes to reach Yemen's besieged port city of Al Hudaydah to provide humanitarian aid, Sylvia Ghaly, Save the Children's director of advocacy, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
Last week, the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states announced the launch of another large-scale military offensive to liberate Al Hudaydah from Houthi militants, also known as the Ansar Allah movement. Al Hudaydah was a major point of entry for humanitarian aid into the war-torn country.
"In fact, currently there are many pockets in Yemen that are experiencing famine-like conditions, and if it was not for the steady supply of humanitarian aid to Yemen, many people in Yemen would have starved ... We are considering alternative routes to reach the affected city," Ghaly stated, in reference to Al Hudaydah.
Ghaly noted that the uncertainty around Al Hudaydah caused by the offensive has destabilized Yemen's economy and impacted the level of imported food and fuel coming into the country. Ghaly called on the international community to bring the parties of the conflict to a negotiating table to prevent any future offensives on Al Hudaydah.
The advocacy director added that Save the Children was working with the World Food Programme (WFP) in order to conduct food distribution in the near future.
"We distribute food vouchers and food baskets and multi-purpose cash vouchers to the affected population, and we are about to do general food distribution with WFP in Sanaa," Ghaly said.
Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels for several years. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
On Friday, at a briefing of the UN Security Council, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock stated that Yemen was approaching a tipping point, beyond which it would be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country.