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Yemen Humanitarian Situation is Bleak - UN emergency Coordinator briefs Security Council

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Briefing by Mr. Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA), on the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
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The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told the Security Council that the humanitarian situation in Yemen “is bleak” and it “has deteriorated in an alarming way in recent weeks.”
Lowcock warned that “we may now be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country.”
Years of fighting has destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure, displaced millions from their homes and caused an economic collapse of what was already one of the poorest nations in the world. The humanitarian chief reported that at the beginning of 2018, more than 22 million Yemenis – or 75 percent of population were in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance or protection.
Lowcock also said, “some 18 million people, including a high proportion of Yemen’s children, are food insecure, and more than 8 million of them severely-food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal will come from and they need emergency food assistance to survive.”
According to OCHA, an additional 3.5 million people may soon be added to those eight million already severely food insecure.
Paying tribute to all aid workers on the ground in Yemen, Lowcock reported that, under the UN response plan, the humanitarian organizations provided assistance to more than eight million vulnerable Yemenis in the first half of the year and are planning to scale up the food distribution to reach eight million people this month.
The UN emergency Coordinator said “while we will continue to push to scale up the humanitarian response, humanitarian organizations simply cannot look after the needs of all 29 million Yemenis. That is untenable.”
He asked the Security Council for support in “key areas to prevent a complete collapse and safeguard the lives of millions of the most vulnerable people.”
Those areas include immediate measures to stabilize the economy and support the exchange rate, keeping all ports and main roads open, functional and safe, as well opening of an air bridge for civilians to seek medical treatment outside Yemen for diseases no longer treatable inside the country.
In September 2014, the Houthi rebels took control of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and proceeded to push southwards towards the country's second-biggest city, Aden. In response to the Houthis' advances, a coalition of Arab states launched a military campaign in 2015 to defeat the Houthis and restore Yemen's government.
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