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STORY: UN / YEMEN
TRT: 02:35
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 16 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
16 NOVEMBER 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen:
“This is a crucial moment for Yemen. I have received firm assurances from the leadership of the
Yemeni parties - the Government of Yemen, of course first, and then Ansar Allah - that they are committed to attending these consultations. I believe they are genuine and I expect them to continue in that way and to appear for those consultations and indeed so do the Yemeni people, who are desperate for a political solution to a war in which they are the main victims.”
5. Med shot, Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Lowcock
6. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“What I have seen this week in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares, of horror, of deprivation, of misery. This country of 28, 29 million people has been suffering for years, but now, as some would say, it is on the brink of catastrophe. But it is not on the brink of catastrophe, it is a catastrophe. And all of us, each and every one of us, have our own selves to blame. And the question is what are we going to do about it. The conditions that everyday Yemenis endure are present only because of war. They would not exist at all if stubborn men would just sit down and talk instead of fight.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“From the two famines declared this century - Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017- a very painful lesson is that most fatalities occur before the famine is declared. So, to be clear, I am not saying that widespread famine has already taken hold in Yemen. But that is what we are trying to prevent. It is abundantly clear that Yemen is already facing mass hunger and severe food insecurity.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Awad Bin Mubarak, Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations:
“The Yemeni government reiterates its position. We support the efforts of the Special Envoy to achieve peace through new negotiations. We hope that the rebels will participate in these negotiations and that they will do so in good faith and that this therefore will allow us to implement the various recommendations of the Special Envoy.”
11. Various shots Council
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, told the Security Council that the country is at “a crucial moment” as he has received “firm assurances from the leadership of the Yemeni parties that they are committed to attending” a new round of consultations with the goal of establishing a framework for negotiations.
Griffiths said, “I believe they are genuine and I expect them to continue in that way and to appear for those consultations and indeed so do the Yemeni people, who are desperate for a political solution to a war in which they are the main victims.”
Upon his return from Yemen, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, said, “what I have seen this week in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares, of horror, of
deprivation, of misery.”
Beasley said Yemen “is not on the brink of catastrophe, it is a catastrophe. And all of us, each and every one of us, have our own selves to blame.”
Th question, he said, “is what are we going to do about it,” and stressed that “the conditions that everyday Yemenis endure are present only because of war. They would not exist at all if stubborn men would just sit down and talk instead of fight.”
In his address to the Council, Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Lowcock said, “from the two famines declared this century - Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017- a very painful lesson is that most fatalities occur before the famine is declared. So, to be clear, I am not saying that widespread famine has already taken hold in Yemen. But that is what we are trying to prevent. It is abundantly clear that Yemen is already facing mass hunger and severe food insecurity.”
For his part, Yemeni Ambassador Ahmad Awad Bin Mubarak, said the government supports the efforts of the Special Envoy “to achieve peace through new negotiations.”
He said, “we hope that the rebels will participate in these negotiations and that they will do so in good faith and that this therefore will allow us to implement the various recommendations of the Special Envoy.”
WFP plans to scale up aid to up to 14 million people in Yemen - well over the eight million Yemenis who are close to famine and who receive food or food vouchers from WFP every month.
Of that number, 1.8 million are children under five years old who are described as acutely malnourished; another 400,000 are severely acutely malnourished, and yet another 1.1 million are malnourished pregnant or nursing women.
