Alwaght- Director of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs John Ging said that Yemeni people are dying of preventable illnesses because of the limited availability of even the most basic medical supplies calling to lift the blockade to enable unhindered humanitarian access.
After a three-day visit to the war-torn impoverished Yemen, Ging on Tuesday asked for a swift unhindered humanitarian access by lifting the blockade so that humanitarian actors have sustained, unhindered and safe access to all people in need, particularly in the governorates of Taiz, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Aden and Al Jawf.
“The people of Yemen must be at the centre of this response, and our collective duty is to protect them and provide them with food, health, shelter and other vital support,” he stressed.
Ging also called for increasing global efforts to support the more than 13 million people in need of immediate, life-saving assistance in Yemen.
“Seeing the plight of the Yemeni people first-hand reinforces the need for national and international humanitarian actors to scale up their response to protect and support the population,” John Ging, Director of Operations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in New York.
Director of OCHA appealed for an urgent increase in attention and support for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires $1.8 billion this year, but remains “shockingly underfunded” at only 16 per cent.
He undertook his three-day visit with Emergency Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Rick Brennan, and Deputy Emergency Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Gian Carlo Cirri.
Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.
Over 9,600 Yemeni have been killed during the illegal aggression, with the vast majority of them being innocent civilians including women and children.
More than 7.6 million people are severely food insecure, and 2.5 million people have been displaced by violent conflict since January 2014.
Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to the Saudi regime.
