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UN / YEMEN GRIFFITHS LOWCOCK
STORY: UN / YEMEN GRIFFITHS LOWCOCK
TRT: 03:11
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 16 MARCH 2021, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
16 MARCH 2021, NEW YORK CITY
2. Multiscreen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“I am alarmed, to be very frank that the mere fact of meeting across the table to discuss with us or with others, or with each other, the contours of ending the war is being framed by some – not by all - as a concession rather than an obligation. As a transaction, rather than a priority.”
4. Multiscreen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“A nationwide ceasefire, along with the opening of Sana’a airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hudaydah ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives. These measures will ease the impact of the conflict on civilians, will facilitate Yemenis’ right to freedom of movement, and it’s clear we must do all we can to allow Yemen to survive, to give it a chance under these circumstances. And so, it is logical that we must focus on these issues as a priority on the negotiations upon which we are engaged.”
6. Multiscreen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Fuel, as everybody knows and understands, is essential if you want to transport food, or pump water, or keep hospitals open. Fuel prices have doubled or tripled in some areas as a result of the desperate shortages that there now are, and that, of course is also pushing up prices of food and healthcare and everything else. We’ve in fact seen more reports of health facilities closing down in the last several weeks because they’ve run out of fuel. Now the Government has blocked all commercial fuel imports to Hudaydah, through which more than half of Yemen fuel imports come.”
8. Multiscreen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Altogether the event on 1 March raised 1.7 billion dollars. But that’s less than half of what we need for this year’s response plan. It’s nearly a billion dollar less than what we received in 2019. And it means we will not reverse the protracted process of prolonged starvation, which millions of people across Yemen have been subject to, ending in death, especially for women and children.”
10. Multiscreen
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“We welcome the statements of the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States that condemned the continued Houthi attacks against Marib. We call on this esteemed Council to shoulder its responsibilities and to take deterrent measures against these militias and the rogue Iranian regime to stop their military escalation and support peace efforts by the United Nations.”
12. Multiscreen
In his briefing to the Security Council, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Martin Griffiths today (16 Mar) said he was “alarmed” that negotiations to end the war in Yemen are being framed by some of the parties “as a concession rather than an obligation. As a transaction, rather than a priority.”
Griffiths told the Council that “a nationwide ceasefire, along with the opening of Sana’a airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hudaydah ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives.”
These measures, he said, “will ease the impact of the conflict on civilians, will facilitate Yemenis’ right to freedom of movement, and it’s clear we must do all we can to allow Yemen to survive, to give it a chance under these circumstances.”
In his briefing to the Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, called for the Government to allow commercial fuel imports to Hudaydah, “through which more than half of Yemen fuel imports come.”
He said, “fuel, as everybody knows and understands, is essential if you want to transport food, or pump water, or keep hospitals open. Fuel prices have doubled or tripled in some areas as a result of the desperate shortages that there now are, and that, of course is also pushing up prices of food and healthcare and everything else. We’ve in fact seen more reports of health facilities closing down in the last several weeks because they’ve run out of fuel.”
13 fuel ships that have been inspected and cleared by the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism are currently awaiting outside Hudaydah, carrying two months of fuel imports.
Lowcock said the Yemen pledging conference that took place on 1 March raised 1.7 billion dollars, “less than half of what we need for this year’s response plan.”
He said “it’s nearly a billion dollar less than what we received in 2019. And it means we will not reverse the protracted process of prolonged starvation, which millions of people across Yemen have been subject to, ending in death, especially for women and children.”
For his part Yemen’s Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi said, “we welcome the statements of the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States that condemned the continued Houthi attacks against Marib. We call on this esteemed Council to shoulder its responsibilities and to take deterrent measures against these militias and the rogue Iranian regime to stop their military escalation and support peace efforts by the United Nations.”
The international response to the High-Level Pledging Event on Yemen has been described as “disappointing” by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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