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Other members of the G20 have exported more than US$17bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since it became involved in the conflict in Yemen in 2015 but have given only a third of that amount in aid to people caught in the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, Oxfam said today.

Oxfam and eleven other aid agencies have called on the Saudi-led coalition to lift restrictions on Yemeni airspace in order to allow for the reopening of the country’s main airport, Sana’a International, and to allow humanitarian flights to resume. 

In reaction to the reprehensible attack that killed 13 civilians, including children, in the north of Yemen yesterday, Oxfam and seven other international agencies working in Yemen strongly condemned the attack.

Oxfam confirms the death of colleague Fathi Mahmoud Ali Salem Al-Zurigi in Yemen on the evening of Tuesday May 25, after a shooting incident on Monday May 24. 

The agencies call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians, facilitate safe passage of those trapped in conflict areas, allow humanitarian access to those in need and cease damage to vital infrastructure.

A quarter of all civilian casualties across Yemen in 2019 were recorded in Hudaydah governorate. Despite a ceasefire in the port city being at the heart of last year’s Stockholm Agreement, Hudaydah has seen 799 civilian deaths and injuries since the Agreement was signed, the highest toll countrywide.

Humanitarian agencies are calling on the international community to support a lasting solution that could save the lives of millions of civilians in Yemen, as the United Nations prepares to host peace talks on Sunday June 14th in Geneva.

Six months ago UN Secretary General called in March for a global ceasefire tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now sleepwalking towards a seventh year of war, and the people of Yemen can only surmise that the world has forgotten them.

Lack of fuel in Yemen caused by the continuing conflict and restrictions of imports could ultimately be responsible for even more deaths than the fighting in the country, Oxfam warned today.

Cyclone Yasa landfall in Fiji yesterday, carrying destructive winds of up to 345km/h, heavy rain and storm swells, has flattened homes and left major devastation to roads, and vegetation. More than 600,000 people in the South Pacific island nation are now affected, thousands of which are already in evacuation centers as the tropical storm disrupted access to essential utilities including water supply and sanitation facilities, as well as food.