Yemeni children are suffering acute malnutrition at unprecedented rates as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis grinds on and funding falls far short of what is needed to offset the effects of conflict and economic collapse, UN agencies said in a statement on Tuesday.
Parties to the conflict in Yemen must do more to protect civilians, a senior UN humanitarian official there has said, as the number of civilian deaths has witnessed a sharp rise over the last few weeks in the war-ravaged country.
An “airlift of hope” agreed by Yemen’s warring parties to return more than 1,000 detainees to their families has been welcomed by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, who has urged both sides to agree to further peace-building measures.
The repatriation of 18 Yemeni nationals previously held at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, should be halted, as their lives could be in danger, UN-appointed human rights experts said on Thursday.
At the end of a week-long meeting in Switzerland, the parties to the conflict in Yemen reached what the UN envoy there called “a very important milestone”, in agreeing to release a first group of detainees.
More than five years of war have “devastated the lives of tens of millions of Yemenis”, with experts estimating that up to one million may have been affected by COVID-19, the UN chief told the General Assembly on Thursday.
Working from a field office in Yemen, Sonia Almassad ensures that UN relief aid reaches those who need it, in the war-torn country. She was previously posted in her home country, Syria, where she negotiated with armed groups on both sides of the conflict, sometimes at great personal risk.
Unparalleled rights violations and abuses against journalists are being carried out by all parties to the armed conflict in Yemen, the UN human rights chief said on Thursday
COVID-19 fears have prompted fresh displacement in war-torn Yemen, and forced many of those on the move to sell what little they have to survive, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
Time is fast running out for getting a UN team of experts aboard the Yemeni oil storage vessel Safer, before it spills its cargo of 1.148 million barrels of light crude oil into the Red Sea, triggering what would likely be a massive environmental and economic catastrophe, the Security Council heard on Wednesday.
