SANAA, July 30 (Saba) – The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, warned that the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes are putting innocent civilians in Yemen's Hodeidah province ar "extreme risk, in a statement obtained by Saba on Monday.
"For weeks, we have been doing everything possible to help hundreds of thousands of people living in and near Hodeidah port, however, these airstrikes are putting innocent civilians at extreme risk," Grande said in a statement released by the UN News late on Sunday.
The port is the primary gateway for food and humanitarian supplies into the country, and together with the city overall.
Overall, 22 million people – or 75 per cent of the Yemeni population – require some form of humanitarian help or protection, including nearly 8.5 million who do not know where their next meal is coming from.
The large cholera outbreak which began last year across Yemen, she said that the deadly water-bourne disease "is already present in neighbourhoods across the city and governorate. Damage to sanitation, water and health facilities jeopardizes everything that we are trying to do…We could be one airstrike away from an unstoppable epidemic."
Amal/zak
saba