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UN / YEMEN
STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 3:46
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 18 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
FILE
1. Exterior shot, UN Headquarters
18 JULY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Beasley and Lowcock taking seats at Council’s table
4. Med shot, Yemen’s ambassador seating
5. Med shot, Council’s president speaking
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen:
“Progress in Hodeida will allow the parties to work together, whether on tripartite monitoring, collection of revenues, or on common assessments of possible ceasefire violations. My hope, of course, is that progress in Hodeida will finally allow us to focus on the political process and I hope that we will see this before the end of this summer. Yemen, indeed, as we have observed before, has no time to waste.”
7. Cutaway, Lowcock and Beasley at the table
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen:
“Although the Hodeidah ceasefire broadly continues to hold, remarkably, military operations as we have been frequently reminded, have continued on several other frontlines, as well as on Yemen’s border to the North with Saudi Arabia. I am particularly alarmed by the continued attacks by Ansar Allah on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.”
9. Wide shot, Security Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Conditions for most people in Yemen are getting worse, not better. And if the current trajectory continues, we should all expect they will continue to get worse. The fighting rages on. Since June, 120,000 more people have fled their homes, bringing total displacement this year to more than 300,000 people - on top, of course, of the millions forced to flee in previous years.”
11. Wide shot, Security Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“But those who made the largest pledges - Yemen’s neighbours in the Coalition - have so far paid only a modest proportion of what they promised. And as a result, the response plan is currently just 34 percent funded, compared to, as I said, 60 percent this time last year.”
13. Wide shot, Security Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“So far this year, nearly 500,000 cases of cholera have been reported. We have received reports so far of more than 700 deaths as a result, including more than 200 children. The death toll will surely grow.”
15. Wide shot, Security Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme:
“Around 30 million people live in Yemen, and more than two-thirds of them are food insecure. That’s 20 million people. Twenty million little boys and girls, men and women. Ten million of them are severe/y food insecure – they don’t know where their next meal will come from, as they march towards starvation. Every day, Yemenis are making impossible choices, simply to survive.”
17. Close up, Yemen’s ambassador
18. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme:
“Not a day has gone by where I have not thought of the impact that suspending food assistance may have. To the people in Sana’a City, and through all of Yemen, I am so sorry you are going through this. But let me add - despite the suspension - we have increased, as Mark said, the number of people who we have reached, from 10.6 million to 11.3 million, and we are continuing to scale up. In fact we expect to reach about 12 million by the end of this month.”
19. Wide shot, Security Council
Yemen "has no time to waste” said the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths in his briefing to the Security Council on Thursday. Griffiths also reported that he is “particularly alarmed by the continued attacks by Ansar Allah on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.”
Special Envoy, who was briefing the Security Council via video teleconference, was followed by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, giving an update on the humanitarian situation in the Yemen.
Griffiths told the Council’s members that the way forward is through the implementation of Hodeidah agreement.
“Progress in Hodeida will allow the parties to work together whether on tripartite monitoring, collection of revenues, or on common assessments of possible ceasefire violations,” said Griffiths. “My hope, of course, is that progress in Hodeida will finally allow us to focus on the political process and I hope that we will see this before the end of this summer” he added.
“Yemen, indeed,” he underlined, “has no time to waste.”
While the ceasefire in Hodeidah is holding, Griffiths reported, fighting “have continued on several other frontlines, as well as on Yemen’s border to the North with Saudi Arabia.”
Special Envoy said, “I am particularly alarmed by the continued attacks by Ansar Allah on civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.”
In his briefing, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said “conditions for most people in Yemen are getting worse, not better. And if the current trajectory continues, we should all expect they will continue to get worse.”
Lowcock reported that since June this year, another 120 000 people fled their homes because of fighting, bringing the total number of displaced people for this year to more than 300,000, “on top, of course, of the millions forced to flee in previous years.”
In April and May of 2019, the humanitarians reported 375 incidents across the country, mostly in the area controlled by Ansar Allah, who’s authorities seized more than 180 trucks with humanitarian aid and held them for more than a month before eventually releasing them back.
Lowcock also reported on the current state of funding of humanitarian operations in Yemen, for which in February, donors have pledged USD 2.6 billions to fund the 2019 humanitarian response plan. However, only 27 out of 40 donors have so far paid more than 75 percent of what they have promised, while 20 have paid in full if not more.
“But those who made the largest pledges - Yemen’s neighbours in the Coalition - have so far paid only a modest proportion of what they promised”said Lowcock. “As a result, the response plan is currently just 34 per cent funded, compared to, as I said, 60 per cent this time last year,” he added.
Because of the lack of funds, Lowcock elaborated, humanitarian agencies over next two months expect to close 21 key programmes. Some regular vaccination campaigns, targeting 13 million people, including 200,000 infants have already been suspended; work on 30 new feeding centers in areas with the worst levels of hunger has also been halted, while up to 60 existing centers could close in the coming weeks, putting at least 7,000 malnourished children at immediate risk of death, according to Lowcock.
Lack of funds has also reversed the success in fighting the cholera epidemic, which has, in 2017, infected more than a million people. After implementing a country-wide campaign last year, the humanitarians have managed to get that number down to 380 000 cases of cholera in 2018.
Those gains, according to Lowcock, have now been lost.
“So far this year, nearly 500,000 cases of cholera have been reported. We have received reports so far of more than 700 deaths as a result, including more than 200 children,” said Lowcock. “The death toll will surely grow,” he said.
WFP chief, David Beasley, reported to the Council that “around 30 million people live in Yemen, and more than two-thirds of them are food insecure.”
“That’s 20 million people. Twenty million little boys and girls, men and women. Ten million of them are severely food insecure – they don’t know where their next meal will come from, as they march towards starvation,” said Beasley. “Every day, Yemenis are making impossible choices, simply to survive,” he added.
Last month, the WFP suspended the food delivery in Sana’a, affecting some 850 000 people. The agency said then it was forced to suspend the food assistance because it was unable to reach an agreement with the Sana’a authorities to introduce controls to prevent the diversion of food away from some of the most vulnerable people in Yemen.
“Not a day has gone by where I have not thought of the impact that suspending food assistance may have,” said Beasley. “To the people in Sana’a City, and through all of Yemen, I am so sorry you are going through this,” he added.
Despite the suspension however, the WFP have increased, according to Beasley, “the number of people who we have reached, from 10.6 million to 11.3 million, and we are continuing to scale up.”
“In fact, we expect to reach about 12 million by the end of this month,” Beasley ended.
In his briefing, the WFP head also pleaded to donors for USD 1.2 billion to support agency’s efforts to feed the most vulnerable Yemenis over the next months.
Twenty-seven of the 40 donors who pledged have paid more than 75 per cent of their pledges, and 20 have paid 100 per cent - and in some cases even more. But those who made the largest pledges - Yemen’s neighbours in the Coalition - have so far paid only a modest proportion of what they promised. As a result, the response plan is currently just 34 per cent funded, compared to, as I said, 60 per cent this time last year.
Agencies are starting to suspend some regular vaccination campaigns targeting 13 million people, including 200,000 infants. Work on 30 new feeding centres in areas with the worst levels of hunger has also been halted. Up to 60 existing centres could close in the coming weeks, putting at least 7,000 malnourished children at immediate risk of death.
So far this year, nearly 500,000 cases of cholera have been reported. We have received reports so far of more than 700 deaths as a result, including more than 200 children. The death toll will surely grow.
Not a day has gone by where I have not thought of the impact that
suspending food assistance may have.
To the people in Sana’a City, and through all of Yemen, I am so sorry you
are going through this.
But let me add - despite the suspension - we have increased the number of
people who we have reached, from 10.6 million to 11.3 million, and we are
continuing to scale up.
Around 30 million people live in Yemen, and more than two-thirds of them are food insecure. That s 20 million women, men, boys and girls ...
Ten million of them are severe/y food insecure - people who do not know where they will get their next meal ... or even IF they will get another meal. Every day, Yemenis are making impossible choices, simply to survive.
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