Nearly 20 million Yemenis need aid, UN says

 Thursday, January 16, 2025

Islamabad (Point News Today/ Pakistan Point News - 16th Jan, 2025 ) According to Joyce Msuya, the acting head of the United Nations Humanitarian Agency (OCHA), “People in Yemen continue to face a severe humanitarian and protection crisis.”

Referring to the UN agency’s appeal for humanitarian assistance for Yemenis, she said that the crisis will worsen.

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According to Msuya, about 17 million people, who constitute almost half of the country’s total population, cannot even meet their basic food needs.

According to Joyce Msuya, “At least 19.5 million people in Yemen will need humanitarian assistance and protection this year.

In addition to this number, an estimated 4.8 million people are internally displaced, the majority of whom are women and children.

Nearly half of children under the age of five are stunted by hunger. The country’s health system is already strained by the spread of cholera.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, recently visited the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

He stressed that there is a need for “an urgent reduction in hostilities and genuine efforts for peace.”

Yemen has been in the grip of civil war since the Houthi rebels ousted Yemen’s internationally recognized government from the capital in 2014. The Houthis also control several key cities in the north of the country.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen to bolster the Yemeni government.

A ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations in April 2022 brought some calm to the country, and in December 2023, the warring parties agreed to advance the peace process.

However, after the start of the Gaza war, the Houthis began targeting Israeli targets and international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, after which Israel and the United States have been targeting Houthi rebel positions in Yemen.