Yemen conflict

In response to the first flight from Sana'a airport in Yemen this week, the Oxfam in Yemen country director, Ferran Puig, said: “The re-opening of Sana’a airport is a positive step that restores hope for an end to the suffering of millions of Yemenis after seven harrowing years of conflict."

The human cost of the war in Yemen is rising sharply as the conflict enters its eighth year, with the number of civilian deaths increasing sharply, hunger on the rise and three quarters of the population in urgent need of humanitarian support, Oxfam warned today. 

In response to today’s Virtual High-Level Pledging Event on the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen, Ferran Puig, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen said: “The world must not look away while Yemen suffers. Even before the Ukraine conflict drove up food prices and threatened food imports, two thirds of major aid programmes had already been reduced or closed because of lack of funding." 

One year after the battle for Yemen’s resource rich Marib governorate escalated, the humanitarian situation has worsened as shifting frontlines, airstrikes and landmines displace nearly 100,000 people, many of whom have already fled multiple times.

Oxfam today called on the UN Security Council to condemn the recent attacks in Yemen and inject new urgency into peace talks to end the seven-year conflict. The call follows airstrikes that have killed and injured hundreds of civilians in the last week and led to the suspension of humanitarian aid in parts of the country. At the same time, people are struggling with spiraling prices for food, fuel, and basic essentials in what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.  

In response to today’s Virtual High-Level Side Event on Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen said: “After years of conflict, two-thirds of the population are in need of humanitarian assistance, one in eight people are displaced, and levels of hunger and utmost poverty continue to increase. In this context, the country cannot cope with the further crisis of COVID-19."

Yemenis are battling a third wave of COVID, which threatens 99 per cent of the population who are unvaccinated, Oxfam said today.

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. 

Reacting to the reports that the Saudi-led coalition has allowed four ships to dock at the blockaded port of Hudaydah Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director Muhsin Siddiquey said: “The move hopefully sets a precedent allowing full access of essential food and fuel imports and humanitarian aid to a country on the brink of famine. The blockade has been a critical factor in creating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and must be fully lifted to prevent further suffering.

Evidence is mounting that a second wave of Covid-19 is already underway in Yemen, Oxfam warned today, with a 22-fold increase in recorded cases in recent weeks. It comes at a time when it is feared renewed fighting will force hundreds of thousands of people to flee to safety.