UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Yemen risks becoming further drawn into a military escalation in the Middle East that continues to escalate and could spiral out of control, the United Nations special envoy to the Arab world’s poorest country said Tuesday.
Unfortunately, Yemen also plays a role in the escalation, Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council, adding that repeated attacks by Houthi rebels on international shipping have increased the risk of “environmental disaster” in the Red Sea. “It has increased significantly,” he warned.
Both Mr. Grundberg and the United Nations’ acting humanitarian chief, Joyce Musuya, urged the Iranian-backed Houthis to halt their attacks on international shipping. The rebels began supporting Hamas, also an Iranian-backed militant group, after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked Israel’s ongoing crisis. war in Gaza.
UN officials also called for the release of dozens of UN staff, staff of nongovernmental organizations and diplomatic missions, and members of civil society who have been detained since June.
Mr Musya said the Houthis’ recent presentation of a significant number of their detainees for “criminal prosecution” is unacceptable and the charges against them are false. He said three were United Nations employees, two from the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and one from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Office. They were detained in 2021 and early 2023.
Days after the June detentions, the Houthis announced that the detainees were members of an organization called the “American-Israeli spy network,” a claim vehemently denied by the United Nations, NGOs, governments and others. Ta.
The Houthis have been fighting a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since taking control of the capital Sanaa and much of the north in 2014. Hopes for peace talks evaporated after the October 7 attack in Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and about 250 people taken hostage, with about 100 still being held. . . More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, local health authorities say, with more than half of the dead being women and children, although they have not said how many were fighters. It is said that
Grundberg told members of Congress that “Yemenis aspire to and continue to strive for peace,” but that any hope for progress in ending the escalating violence in the Middle East “seems remote.”
“Like many people in the Middle East, their hopes for a bright future are now overshadowed by a potentially devastating regional conflagration,” he said.
Since the war in Gaza began a year ago, the Houthis have targeted more than 80 commercial ships with missiles and drones. In the operation, they captured one ship, sank two others, killed four sailors, and seriously disrupted traffic in the Red Sea, through which $1 trillion in goods once passed through each year.
Grundberg said the Houthi attack on the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in August narrowly averted an environmental disaster, and warned that repeated attacks would increase the risk of an environmental catastrophe.
In response to the Houthi offensive, the U.S.-led coalition carried out airstrikes in Yemen, and Israel attacked the port of Hodeidah, a vital aid and goods transit hub for the import-dependent country.
Musya said the United Nations was “very alarmed” by the ongoing attacks on the small ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa. The airstrikes damaged critical energy and port infrastructure, but both ports were able to receive commercial and humanitarian imports, it said.
“However, power plants across the city of Hodeidah are operating at very limited capacity,” Musya said, adding that the United Nations was supporting health facilities to continue essential services.
Musya told the board last month that the United Nations was scaling back its operations in Yemen following a crackdown by the Houthis against staff working for the United Nations and other organizations.
He told Congress on Tuesday that despite the growing need, arbitrary detention and “false charges against them continue to severely hamper our ability to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance in Yemen.” ‘ he warned.
“The humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to deteriorate in both scale and severity,” Ms. Musya said, adding that “hunger continues to increase.”
He said the number of Yemenis without enough to eat “surgled to unprecedented levels” in August, and the level of severe food insecurity in Houthi-controlled areas had doubled since last year.
Musya said the United Nations’ call for $2.7 billion for Yemen this year to help 11.2 million people was 41% funded. He said $870 million was urgently needed and warned that without additional funding, 9 million Yemenis across the country would no longer receive emergency food aid in the final quarter of this year.
Musuya said the cholera epidemic continues with more than 203,000 suspected cases and 720 deaths since March, but cholera funding has already been exhausted and UN health partners have 78 It said 21 of its diarrhea treatment centers and 97 of its 423 oral rehydration facilities have been forced to close. Center.
