The Saudi-led coalition’s assault on Hodeida, Yemen’s main port city, will have a “catastrophic impact” on the ability of relief groups to get food, medicine and other aid to vulnerable Yemeni families in urgent need of assistance, a Catholic aid agency warned.
CAFOD, the overseas aid agency of the bishops of England and Wales, made the comments ahead of a UN emergency meeting on the situation.
“CAFOD partner staff in the country remain on the frontline, doing everything they can to reach people who are in urgent need of humanitarian aid,” Giovanna Reda, CAFOD’s head of humanitarian programmes for the Middle East said. “But with 90% of all Yemen’s food imports passing through Hodeida, any disruption to the port’s operation will affect the entire country,” said Reda.
“They must act now to secure a cease-fire and halt the suffering of millions of people,” she said.
Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi-led coalition warplanes and ships began to pound Hodeida on June 13 in the biggest battle of the three-year war between several Gulf Arab states and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The coalition aims to retake the Houthi-held city, which is a key aid hub.
However, Yemen is already facing pre-famine conditions in what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“Hunger affects 17 million Yemenis, which is 60 percent of the population,” Reda said. “People do not know where and when they will get their next meal.”
“Millions of people don’t have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Last year, the country faced the largest outbreak of cholera, claiming the lives of thousands of people,” she added.