Alwaght- Saudi Arabia’s slight easing of its blockade on Yemen is not enough to stop the war-torn country from plunging into famine, a UN aid official has said.
"We welcome the easing of the blockade, the partial lifting of it … but much more needs to be done," Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said on Monday, emphasizing, "Ports must be fully open, especially Hudaydah, for commercial and humanitarian goods so that people can buy cheaper goods."
"We must (...) increase the number of boats arriving at the port of Hudaydah," otherwise prices will increase and "more and more people will suffer," noted the UN official.
Meanwhile Britain’s opposition Labor Party has called on the country’s government to suspend all arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia until the blockade was lifted.
Fabian Hamilton, Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman, said: “Innocent civilians, including children, are still at risk of starvation and malnutrition due to this brutal blockade that has already taken its toll on the civilian population of the country. We are continuing to call for the suspension of all British arms sales to Saudi Arabia until the blockade is fully lifted to allow both UN and commercial aid into the country.”
The situation in Yemen is going from bad to worse with senior UN officials warning that the country is facing the world's largest famine in decades. The World Food Program says of a population of 26 million, some 17 million Yemenis do not know where their next meal is coming from and seven million are totally dependent on food aid.
The Saudi-led military coalition has been continuously pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of the regime in Riyadh. Over 13,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the Saudi-led aggression.
