GENEVA/SANAA: Operations at Yemen’s lifeline port of Hodeida have nearly halved in two weeks, with shipping companies deterred by insecurity in the flashpoint Ansar Allah-held city, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, aid agencies have launched a polio vaccination campaign in Yemen to inoculate up to five million children under the age of five across the impoverished Arab state whose healthcare system has been crippled by more than three years of war.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition is fighting to oust the Ansar Allah movement that has taken over most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and restore President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to full control.
As 70 per cent of imports come in through the vital Hodeida port, a drop in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would affect food stocks in Yemen where 14 million people are facing possible starvation after nearly four years of war, WFP said.
“WFP is very concerned about a nearly 50 per cent decrease in operations at Hodeida port over last two weeks,” spokesman Herve Verhoosel said.
“Shipping companies appear to be reluctant to call to Hodeida port because of the high levels of insecurity in the city,” he said.
The WFP, which provides rations to eight million Yemenis each month, has been trying to scale up to avert famine. It has two more months worth of food stocks in the impoverished country, Verhoosel said.
“Any disruptions to the port operations would hamper humanitarian efforts to prevent famine as well as increase food prices in markets even further, making it extremely difficult for the majority of Yemenis to feed their families,” he said.
On Monday, a single vessel was at Hodeida port, which was “not normal” for a port whose current offloading capacity is for seven vessels, he said, adding: “We need to reassure the private sector to say come back to the port.”
UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, who was in Riyadh on Monday, is seeking a UN role in supervising the port and continues his consultations ahead of peace talks planned in Sweden next month, UN spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said.
The three-day polio vaccination campaign which began on Monday is organised by the UN children’s agency Unicef, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the health ministry of the Ansar Allah movement which controls most population centres in the country where millions face starvation, making them more vulnerable to diseases.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is helping hundreds of Ethiopians living in Yemen to return home, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.
On Monday, the first batch of over 100 migrants were returned and more than 300 others are due to follow this week, many of them children, the IOM said. — Agencies
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