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STORY: UN /YEMEN
TRT: 03:41
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 12 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
12 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“The parties need to take actions that build trust and good faith. Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite in the last month with unilateral and escalatory decisions that risk deepening divisions within institutions and state structures. There are numerous examples of such decisions. One is the issuance of the new 50 Riyal coins and 200 Riyal notes by Ansar Allah, which contributes to the fragmentation of the Yemeni Riyal and complicates future discussions to unify the Yemeni economy and its institutions.”
4. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“I urge dialogue between parties, which is the only way to bring about long-term sustainable solutions on all matters which affect the day to day lives of the Yemenis.”
6. Wide shot, Council, Grundberg on screen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, United Nations:
“For Yemen to have a real chance for peace, it must be protected from being further drawn into the ongoing regional turmoil emanating out of the war in Gaza. Therefore, the strikes against civilian ships in the Red Sea must cease. The missile attacks against Israel and the subsequent Israeli strikes on Yemen must also come to an end. Beyond complicating the mediation space for a long-term settlement of the conflict in Yemen, this escalation has led to the near destruction of Yemen’s west coast port facilities. This is placing immense strain on Yemen’s vital infrastructure.”
8. Wide shot, Council, OCHA’s Ramesh Rajasingham on screen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ramesh Rajasingham, Director, Coordination Division, Head and Representative
of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva (OCHA):
“Yemen is now one of the most food insecure countries in the world. As the economy continues to collapse and pressures on the food pipelines mount, many households with access to food can no longer afford it. Livelihoods across the public sector and agriculture and fisheries industries, among others, have been disrupted by ongoing conflict. Mr. President, it is all too easy to reduce Yemen’s crisis to numbers. But let us consider what food insecurity means today for ordinary Yemenis. Half of the nation’s children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, and nearly half suffer from stunting. This means developmental delays and infections, and a risk of death from common illnesses nine to 12 times higher than average. In a context where healthcare is desperately inadequate, and where support services are unavailable to many, this is a life-or-death gamble for children.”
10. Med shot, Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yemen:
“Yemen today is at the threshold of a difficult era. After 11 years of war waged by the terrorist Houthi militias against the country, the state and its constitutional bodies, a war that has destroyed the hopes and aspirations of a people that aspire for security, stability and dignity, justice and equality. A people that strives to build a civil state befitting of their glorious history and their status in the region. The Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government are exerting efforts to push forth the peace process and to positively deal with international and regional efforts, and with the United Nations efforts through its Special Envoy to Yemen, to put an end to this conflict. However, the Houthi militias continue to obstruct all of these efforts and undermine any chances for peace.”
13. Wide shot, end of Council session
The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg today (12 Aug) told the Security Council that “for Yemen to have a real chance for peace, it must be protected from being further drawn into the ongoing regional turmoil emanating out of the war in Gaza.”
Briefing the Council via Videoconference from Amman, in Jordan, Grundberg said the parties in Yemen “need to take actions that build trust and good faith,” but “unfortunately, we have seen the opposite in the last month with unilateral and escalatory decisions that risk deepening divisions within institutions and state structures.”
An example of such decisions, he said, was “the issuance of the new 50 Riyal coins and 200 Riyal notes by Ansar Allah, which contributes to the fragmentation of the Yemeni Riyal and complicates future discussions to unify the Yemeni economy and its institutions.”
Grundberg urged “dialogue between parties, which is the only way to bring about long-term sustainable solutions on all matters which affect the day to day lives of the Yemenis.”
On the regional dimension of the conflict, he said, “the strikes against civilian ships in the Red Sea must cease. The missile attacks against Israel and the subsequent Israeli strikes on Yemen must also come to an end. Beyond complicating the mediation space for a long-term settlement of the conflict in Yemen, this escalation has led to the near destruction of Yemen’s west coast port facilities. This is placing immense strain on Yemen’s vital infrastructure.”
The Special Envoy reaffirmed that his Office remains focused on supporting de-escalation on the frontlines, establishing a path for talks between the parties and the continued work with the region and the international community to support Yemen.
For his part, Ramesh Rajasingham, OCHA’s Director of the Coordination Division, told the Council that more than 17 million people, that’s nearly half of the population of Yemen, are estimated to be acutely hungry.
Rajasingham said, “Yemen is now one of the most food insecure countries in the world. As the economy continues to collapse and pressures on the food pipelines mount, many households with access to food can no longer afford it. Livelihoods across the public sector and agriculture and fisheries industries, among others, have been disrupted by ongoing conflict.”
He said, “half of the nation’s children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, and nearly half suffer from stunting. This means developmental delays and infections, and a risk of death from common illnesses nine to 12 times higher than average. In a context where healthcare is desperately inadequate, and where support services are unavailable to many, this is a life-or-death gamble for children.”
Rajasingham told the Council that the Yemen Humanitarian Fund will be releasing $20 million to address the negative impacts of continuing food insecurity in Yemen.
Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi said, “Yemen today is at the threshold of a difficult era. After 11 years of war waged by the terrorist Houthi militias against the country, the state and its constitutional bodies, a war that has destroyed the hopes and aspirations of a people that aspire for security, stability and dignity, justice and equality. A people that strives to build a civil state befitting of their glorious history and their status in the region.”
Al-Saadi said, “the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government are exerting efforts to push forth the peace process and to positively deal with international and regional efforts, and with the United Nations efforts through its Special Envoy to Yemen, to put an end to this conflict. However, the Houthi militias continue to obstruct all of these efforts and undermine any chances for peace.”
