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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 04:48
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 15 JANUARY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Tilt up, exterior United Nations Headquarters
15 JANUARY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on screen
3. Med shot, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“Recent Israeli airstrikes have damaged critical civilian infrastructure, including the Port of Hodeidah and Sana'a International Airport. The damage to the port and tugboats impacts the ability to unload humanitarian aid. The United Nations has been consistent and strong in its messaging: civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted, whether in Yemen, Israel or Gaza.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“While regional tensions dominate the headlines, we have witnessed some escalation along several front lines, reminding us that the relative stability and improved security conditions for civilians that have existed since the 2022 truce could be lost.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“These attacks must cease, and the parties must urgently take concrete steps towards achieving a nationwide ceasefire agreement. My office has continued to hold discussions with the parties on actions needed to create the conditions for a ceasefire. At this critical juncture, any further escalation risks undermining existing commitments and would have devastating humanitarian consequences for Yemen's people, who have already endured nearly a decade of unimaginable hardship.”
9. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
10. Wide shot, Msuya addressing Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Hostilities in and around Yemen and the wider region have persisted, with increasingly alarming humanitarian repercussions for civilians. The Houthis have continued to target Israel with drones and missiles, causing several civilian injuries and damaging a school near Tel Aviv and homes in Jaffa. Israeli airstrikes on Hodeidah and Sana'a have killed and injured dozens of civilians and have caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure. Overall, the last month has seen a concerning increase in attacks against vital civilian infrastructure, upon which millions of people depend for electricity, safe movement and the import of essential food and medical supplies.”
12. Med shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Yemen relies on imports for over two thirds of the food, and some 90 percent of all medicine and medical supplies for the population. Humanitarians depend on these seaports to bring in live-saving humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine. Impairing their operations causes direct and immense civilian hardship and suffering.”
14. Wide shot, Msuya addressing Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Almost half of Yemen's population, over 17 million people, is unable to meet their basic food needs. The most marginalized, including women and girls, those displaced in communities such as the Muhamasheen, are the worst affected. Almost half of all children under the age of five suffer from moderate to severe stunting caused by malnutrition. Cholera is at appalling levels.”
16. Wide shot, Al-Saadi addressing Council
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“Through the ongoing military escalation, the terrorist Houthi militias are shirking their responsibility towards peace. They are undermining all regional and international efforts and the efforts of the United Nations to end this protracted war and the humanitarian crisis of the Yemeni people. At a time when the government of Yemen condemns the attacks of the Israeli entity against Yemen and the violation of its sovereignty, we hold Houthi militias the responsibility of dragging Yemen to the conflict in the region. We warn these militias from continuing to hold the fate of Yemen and the Yemeni people hostage to drag them to their futile battles in order to serve the interests of their sponsor, the Iranian regime and its expansionist project in the region.”
18. Wide shot, end of meeting
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, today (15 Jan) told the Security Council that recent Israeli airstrikes on Yemen, which have damaged civilian infrastructure, including the Port of Hodeidah and Sana'a International Airport, impact “the ability to unload humanitarian aid.”
Airstrikes by Israel – as well as the United States and the United Kingdom - on Yemen were lunched in response to repeated attacks carried out by the Houthis on commercial vessels in the Red Sea since mid-November 2023.
Grundberg reminded the Council that the United Nations” has been consistent and strong in its messaging: civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted, whether in Yemen, Israel or Gaza.”
The Special Envoy noted that “while regional tensions dominate the headlines, we have witnessed some escalation along several front lines, reminding us that the relative stability and improved security conditions for civilians that have existed since the 2022 truce could be lost.”
These attacks, he said, “must cease, and the parties must urgently take concrete steps towards achieving a nationwide ceasefire agreement.”
The Office of the Special Envoy, Grundberg said, “has continued to hold discussions with the parties on actions needed to create the conditions for a ceasefire.”
He stressed that “any further escalation risks undermining existing commitments and would have devastating humanitarian consequences for Yemen's people, who have already endured nearly a decade of unimaginable hardship.”
Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya, in her briefing to the Council, said, “hostilities in and around Yemen and the wider region have persisted, with increasingly alarming humanitarian repercussions for civilians.”
Msuya said, “the Houthis have continued to target Israel with drones and missiles, causing several civilian injuries and damaging a school near Tel Aviv and homes in Jaffa,” while Israeli airstrikes “have killed and injured dozens of civilians, and have caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure.”
Overall, she said, “the last month has seen a concerning increase in attacks against vital civilian infrastructure, upon which millions of people depend for electricity, safe movement and the import of essential food and medical supplies.”
Msuya noted that “Yemen relies on imports for over two thirds of the food, and some 90 percent of all medicine and medical supplies for the population,” and “humanitarians depend on these seaports to bring in live-saving humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine. Impairing their operations causes direct and immense civilian hardship and suffering.”
The humanitarian official said, “almost half of Yemen's population, over 17 million people, is unable to meet their basic food needs. The most marginalized, including women and girls, those displaced in communities such as the Muhamasheen, are the worst affected. Almost half of all children under the age of five suffer from moderate to severe stunting caused by malnutrition. Cholera is at appalling levels.”
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, for his part said, “through the ongoing military escalation, the terrorist Houthi militias are shirking their responsibility towards peace. They are undermining all regional and international efforts and the efforts of the United Nations to end this protracted war and the humanitarian crisis of the Yemeni people. At a time when the government of Yemen condemns the attacks of the Israeli entity against Yemen and the violation of its sovereignty, we hold Houthi militias the responsibility of dragging Yemen to the conflict in the region. We warn these militias from continuing to hold the fate of Yemen and the Yemeni people hostage to drag them to their futile battles in order to serve the interests of their sponsor, the Iranian regime and its expansionist project in the region.”
The Houthis rebel group has threatened to continue its attacks until Israel ends its military campaign in Gaza that followed the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks. Since December 2023, member states participating in the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, including the UK, have been routinely carrying out retaliatory strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
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