Insecurity, lack of fuel hinder aid delivery in Yemen: UN

The conflict in Yemen, insecurity and shortage of fuel continue to hinder the delivery of urgently needed assistance to displaced families and other vulnerable, conflict-affected communities in the country, a UN spokesman said here Monday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA) said that aid partners have reported difficulty in providing medical services as a result of the current security situation and continued airstrikes targeting Haradh, Saada and Sanaa, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing.

"Food partners have reported they have had to suspend assistance in Haradh district and Al Hudaydah due to lack of fuel, " the spokesman said.

Casualties and the number of displaced continue to rise, he said, adding that in Aden, where violence has continued, local authorities report that 98 percent of Khormaksar district's 62,869 residents had left and that the remaining families are trapped and awaiting secure conditions to leave.

"In Aden, local sources report continued widespread violence," he said. "A two-hour truce proposed by the Southern Resistance Movement has not been observed."

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, is strongly urging the coalition to stop targeting Sanaa airport and to preserve this important lifeline so that humanitarians can reach all those affected by the armed conflict in Yemen.

More than 1,200 people have been killed and 300,000 have fled their homes in nearly two months of fighting in the war-torn Gulf nation. Emergency relief and medical teams from abroad are struggling to fly in to scale-up the humanitarian operation to address the needs of increasingly vulnerable Yemenis. Endite