SANAA, Yemen, Feb 12 (NNN-SABA) – Visiting UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, warned that, the grain aid, stored in the besieged Hodeidah city, to feed over three million people is “at risk of rotting.”
“The urgency of UN access to the Red Sea Mills in Hodeidah is growing by the day,” Griffiths said, in a joint statement with the UN Humanitarian Chief, Mark Lowcock.
“The World Food Programme’s grain, stored in the mills, which was enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month, has been inaccessible for over five months and is at risk of rotting,” they said in the statement.
“We are encouraged by recent engagement of all (Yemeni rival) sides, working with the UN on the ground, to create the necessary conditions for the team to reach the mills without further delay,” they added.
Hodeidah is the lifeline of Yemen’s most commercial imports and humanitarian aid. The four-year civil war has pushed over 12 million people to the verge of starvation and created what the UN calls, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The warring parties reached a peace deal in Stockholm in Dec, last year. They have largely held the cease-fire deal in Hodeidah but failed to withdraw their forces.
The rebels continue to fortify themselves inside the city, while government troops have been massing in the southern and eastern outskirts.
Last week’s negotiations, led by Michael Anker Lollesgaard, head of the UN cease-fire monitor team in Hodeidah, resulted in what the UN called, a “preliminary deal,” yet the warring parties hotly disputed it.– NNN-SABA
