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Middle East (Yemen) - Security Council VTC Briefing
With a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping over Yemen, and as Houthi rebels pursue their offensive in the oil-rich Marib region, more must be done — urgently and with greater international funding — to ease what is still the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today as the 15-member organ, meeting via videoconference, conducted its monthly debate on the conflict in that Middle East country.
Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, said that six years on, there is no sense as to when the conflict might end. However, there is a fair plan on the table, frequently discussed by the parties, that favours humanitarian action and a nationwide ceasefire which would pave the way for a political solution. All that is needed now is for the parties to agree to such a deal, he said, welcoming Council unity on the crisis.
Surveying the situation on the ground, he said that COVID-19 has unleashed itself again on the Yemeni people, while fighting in the area of Marib is showing dangerous signs of escalating, with the local population and internally displaced persons both in the line of fire. He also expressed alarm at reports of drone and ballistic attacks by Ansar Allah against Saudi territory in the past week. In Hudaydah, the United Nations Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement is engaged in intensive talks with the parties on resuming the activities of the Redeployment Coordination Committee, which would help maintain calm in that port city. In Taiz, fighting and tensions are on the rise and key roads are still closed after many years, inflicting terrible consequences on civilians.
Painting a hopeful picture of what could unfold if the parties agree to end the conflict, he said that the guns would fall silent and long-blocked roads would reopen to allow the passage of humanitarian supplies and, later, the free movement of people. Children would go back to school and workers would return to jobs across conflict lines. Impediments to the entry of ships into Hudaydah would be lifted, allowing shipments of fuel and other crucial commodities to dock and unload their cargo. Revenue from those imports would go into the Central Bank of Yemen to be used to pay civil service salaries. Domestic and international flights would resume at Sana’a airport, students would return home and the sick would be able to travel easily for medical treatment. Finally, the parties might agree to release detainees so that families might be reunited. Such arrangements would allow a return to normal life, he said, adding: “Let us together call upon the parties not to disappoint — not us, but their people — and instead deliver Yemen from its tragic plight.”
Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the situation in Yemen — still the world’s largest humanitarian crisis — is quickly getting even worse as the country faces a devastating new wave of COVID-19 infections. The number of confirmed cases doubled in just six weeks and hospitals and clinics are turning people away due to a lack of room and supplies. Aid agencies are doing all they can to help and the United Nations is working with the Government on vaccines after a first shipment of 360,000 doses arrived in Aden two weeks ago through the COVAX facility. Another 1.6 million doses are expected to follow in the coming months, “but right now, the virus is moving much faster than we can keep up”, he said, appealing for more resources to scale up treatment, monitoring and other measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
This second wave comes at a time when large-scale famine is still bearing down on the country, he said, with tens of thousands already starving to death and another 5 million “just one step behind them”. March was the deadliest month for civilians so far in 2021, with more than 200 killed or injured as a result of hostilities, nearly 350 homes damaged or destroyed, and 10 camps hosting displaced persons coming under fire. About a quarter of civilian casualties occurred in and around Marib where Ansar Allah forces have continued an offensive that has displaced nearly 20,000 people so far. The fighting in Marib has also set off escalations in Taiz and Hudaydah, among other places, he said, adding that tens of thousands more people are expected to flee the hostilities — something that would be extremely dangerous as COVID-19 tears through the country.
Humanitarian agencies are quickly expanding their presence in Marib, he said, noting that regular United Nations flights to that city are expected to begin soon. The Government has also released humanitarian assets which had been stuck in customs in Aden. However, bureaucratic impediments remain a severe challenge, with local authorities in Government-held areas in the west, acting without Government approval, imposing new regulations on aid agencies. In the north, the United Nations is engaging with Ansar Allah at all levels to speed up improvements in such areas as biometric registration, humanitarian assessments and project approvals.
Regarding the floating storage and offloading oil vessel Safer, moored off Yemen’s west coast and threatening to spill its cargo of 1.1 million barrels of Marib crude into the Red Sea, he said that a deal may be in sight to resolve an impasse over logistics and practical arrangements to implement an agreed mission plan. The United Nations has been as flexible as it can because it is eager to get started, he said, adding that a United Nations assessment team could arrive by early July to inspect the erstwhile supertanker and carry out urgent repairs if the Ansar Allah leadership agrees to move forward, as it has indicated in recent statements.
He then turned to the funding for the aid operation, saying that so far, about half of the $1.7 billion pledged by donors on 1 March — itself less than half the amount required — has so far been paid. Aid agencies are helping 9 million people every month, down from 14 million a year ago due to funding cuts, while the United Nations response plan is only about 22 per cent funded. “Without more funding, millions of Yemenis will be staring down a death sentence this year,” he said, calling on donors to make good on outstanding pledges right away and to increase their support.
In the ensuing debate, Council members voiced their support for the Saudi Arabia initiative, announced on 22 March, which — in line with the Special Envoy’s efforts — calls for, among other things, the reopening of Sana’a airport, the resumption of fuel and food imports through the port of Hudaydah and the resumption of peace talks between the Government and Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi militia. They also reiterated their concern about the ongoing violence and dire humanitarian situation, emphasizing that there can only be a political end to the conflict.
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