United Nations, United States - Commercial cargo ships carrying food, fuel and other vital supplies must be allowed to reach ports in Yemen which is threatened by famine, the UN Security Council said Thursday.
The Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen has imposed maritime controls that UN diplomats have described as a blockade preventing imports from reaching Yemen.
"It's vital that we get commercial ships back in," UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien told reporters.
The 15-member council said in a unanimous statement that there was "an urgent need for ongoing commercial supplies to enter Yemen as a humanitarian imperative."
Yemen's imports have dropped to 15 percent of pre-crisis levels, in a country that is heavily dependent on goods from outside to survive.
More than 21 million people -- 80 per cent of Yemen's population -- need humanitarian aid and one million have been displaced in the fighting between the Huthis and Saudi-backed troops.
Ten of Yemen's 22 governorates are classified as being in food emergency -- one step below famine, said O'Brien.
Yemen slid deeper into turmoil when the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes in late March to stop an advance by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who drove the president into exile.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are demanding that the Huthis pull back from territory seized in their offensive and that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi be restored to power.
AFP
