Yemen Crisis Could Worsen as Access Woes Deepen

By: Teresa Welch

After UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Yemen earlier this week “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” David Miliband, head of aid, warned that things could get worse as humanitarian groups continue to stumble over access issues that prevent them from Reach those who need it most.

“It’s bad, but it could get worse,” said Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, during an interview on Yemen at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It’s important that we do not work in the world of humanitarian work only on things that are really very bad, but we are working on things that can get worse.”

Some of the more brutal civil consequences of the war in Yemen do not come from air raids and direct armed conflicts, but from lack of access to essential food and health services. According to the IRC, more people in Yemen have died of hunger and preventable diseases compared to war. 79 per cent of Yemen’s population now needs humanitarian assistance and deprives 9.3 million people of the life-saving health services they are entitled to under international law.

The lack of food and medical supplies resulting from the blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea ports has deadly consequences when basic medical supplies are unable to enter the country, leaving State-run facilities without what they need to fight infectious and non-communicable diseases.

People are talking about “access” problems, as if the problem is the difficulty of reaching people, the problem is that it is difficult to reach them, “Miliband said.” The conflict is indeed remarkable for its crimes as well as for its tragedies. This is a man-made conflict with very deep roots and very severe consequences. ”

Once the goods reach the country, the obstruction of checkpoints severely hampers the ability of humanitarian organizations to disperse aid to those most in need. Miliband said that for the Irish Red Cross to travel 300 miles from Aden to Sanaa, they had to pass through more than 70 checkpoints – one checkpoint every 4.3 miles. It may take three to six weeks to plan for an IRC truck on the road.

Along with the extensive destruction of the country’s basic infrastructure, high gas prices will make water pumping more expensive. Lack of access to potable water and sanitation has led to cholera outbreaks in history, with more than a million suspected cases. Are forcing humanitarian organizations to spend more money on trucking across the country, leading to already depleted budgets, as more than half of the Yemeni population does not have access to clean water