Yemeni people "must be at the center" of strengthened crisis response: senior UN official

A senior UN relief official on Tuesday said that Yemeni people "must be at the center" of strengthened crisis response, and called for increased 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, the director of operations in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, following his visit to the conflict-torn country.

Ging appealed for an urgent increase in attention and support for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires 1.8 billion U.S. dollars this year, but remains "shockingly underfunded" at only 16 percent.

He undertook his three-day visit with the emergency director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Rick Brennan, and the deputy emergency director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Gian Carlo Cirri.

They visited a food distribution site in Amran, a small city in western central Yemen where a high number of internally displaced people are living in difficult conditions as a result of the crisis.

Since mid-March 2015, the conflict has prompted a widening protection crisis, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation brought on by years of poverty, poor governance and instability. Over 7.6 million people are severely food insecure, and 2.5 million people have been displaced by violent conflict since January 2014.

Ging made a crucial appeal to the parties of the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians and civilian needs, and to swiftly enable 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," said Ging.

He noted that people are dying of preventable illnesses because of the limited availability of even the most basic medical supplies.

Last year, the humanitarian community delivered vital assistance to 8.8 million women, children and men across the country despite severe restrictions on humanitarian movement and on-going conflict, making all support, including the transportation of goods, difficult and often dangerous.

The crisis in Yemen started in 2011, when Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down from his 33-year rule as the Yemeni president and handed power to his then deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, as part of a wave of protests and political turmoil that swept the whole Arab world. Enditem