GENEVA, (Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2019) The United Nations is assessing possible damage to grain stores it manages near the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah that were hit by gunfire on Thursday, a spokesman said.
"Any damage to humanitarian food stocks, whether deliberately targeted or as collateral damage, is unacceptable when millions in Yemen continue to suffer from crippling shortages of food," the World Food Programme’s senior spokesman Herve Verhoosel told a press briefing in Geneva, according to Reuters.
Fighters of the Iran-aligned Houthis group renewed their shelling against the Red Sea Mills in the western port city of Hodeidah on Thursday, causing damages to the grain facility, a military spokesman told Xinhua.
"The Houthi fighters launched a random mortar shelling on the Red Sea Mills in Hodeidah despite the cease-fire in the city," said Waddah Dubaish, spokesman for joint pro-government forces in the country's Red Sea coast.
He said that serious damage affected one of the silos containing tons of grain, causing a fire that destroyed large quantities of grain at the facility.
The military spokesman added that the Houthi shelling took place at the time when several millers were present and working for the re-operation of the grain facility under the supervision of the WFP.
He explained that "the Red Sea Mills employees, who have been working since last Sunday, for maintenance and rehabilitation of the facility, stopped working after the bombing, and were about to leave for their safety."
