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STORY: UN / RESPONSE IN YEMEN
TRT: 1:50
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 SEPTEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
24 SEPTEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior
2. Wide shot, meeting room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lise Grande, Resident Coordinator in Yemen, United Nations:
“The truth about Yemen is that there is no other place in the world where so many people are suffering so greatly. What we are confronted with in Yemen and what humanitarians are dealing with every day is grim, heart-breaking, and nearly unprecedented in recent memory.”
4. Wide shot, meeting room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lise Grande, Resident Coordinator in Yemen, United Nations:
“Every time the Riyal loses even a few percentage points, tens of thousands of destitute families are thrown out of the market; they’re unable to buy the basic commodities that they need in order to survive. We estimate that if current trends continue and the Riyal reaches 1,000 to the dollar, as many as 12 million Yemenis will be at risk of starvation.”
6. Wide shot, meeting room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“Our experience in Yemen shows that even in protracted crises it is both possible and necessary to provide humanitarian assistance in a way that doesn’t just alleviate suffering but contributes to restoring health services.”
8. Wide shot, meeting room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO, Save the Children:
“Too often in Yemen, we can’t get simple things like food and medicine to those who need it most because we are stopped by a blockade, on checkpoints, on crossfire, sometimes we spend more time on checkpoints than actually getting access to the people who need it the most. And what we are seeming to accept is that this cannot be changed. We are talking about all these figures but let’s not forget that this is a man-made crisis and can be changed by man as well.”
10. Wide shot, meeting room
The UN resident coordinator in Yemen said there was “no other place in the world where so many people are suffering so greatly” describing the humanitarian situation in the country as “grim, heart-breaking, and nearly unprecedented in recent memory.”
Speaking today (24 Sep) at a meeting on the humanitarian response in Yemen, Lise Grande said Yemen was the worst crisis in the world with 75 percent of the population, 22 million people, in need of assistance. She said one child dies in Yemen every 10 minutes due to the war and 50 percent of children in the country were stunted. She estimated that ten million Yemenis would slip into pre-famine conditions by the end of the year in the situation continued adding that the economy is falling apart.
Grande noted that the Yemeni Riyal has depreciated 300 percent in the last three years. She said, “Every time the Riyal loses even a few percentage points, tens of thousands of destitute families are thrown out of the market; they’re unable to buy the basic commodities that they need in order to survive; we estimate that if current trends continue and the Riyal reaches 1,000 to the dollar, as many as 12 million Yemenis will be at risk of starvation.”
The resident coordinator said humanitarians continued to do everything they could to address the crisis as the world’s largest humanitarian operation is underway in the country. She stressed that humanitarians were working in an impartial manner and were not on any one side in the conflict. She said among the countless humanitarian needs in Yemen, the overriding priorities are to reduce hunger and roll back malnutrition, protect civilians, and stop another cholera outbreak.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said 16 million people in the country need health services. He said the lack of investment in the Yemeni health system has led to total dependence on international partners to fill critical gaps. He added that so far this year, humanitarians have vaccinated 650,000 people against cholera, 1.9 million against diphtheria, and nearly five million against polio. He said WHO provided 450,000 medical consultations, 65,000 surgical interventions, and distributed more than 420,000 tonnes of health supplies.
SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“Our experience in Yemen shows that even in protracted crises it is both possible and necessary to provide humanitarian assistance in a way that doesn’t just alleviate suffering but contributes to restoring health services.”
Save the Children CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Yemen is currently the worst place to be a child. She said the State has completely collapsed adding that teachers and health workers were not being paid. She add, “Too often in Yemen, we can’t get simple things like food and medicine to those who need it most because we are stopped by a blockade, on checkpoints, on crossfire, sometimes we spend more time on checkpoints than actually getting access to the people who need it the most.” Thorning-Schmidt stressed that the crisis in Yemen is a “man-made crisis and can be changed by man as well.”
