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Yemen: Humanitarian Response Situation Report, June 2018

Countries
Yemen
Sources
Save the Children
Publication date

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Diplomatic efforts at the highest level are underway, spearheaded by the UN Special Envoy who is mediating between the parties in an attempt to restart peace negotiations. As part of these negotiations, the UAE set a deadline for the Houthi forces to withdraw from Hudaydah under a negotiated settlement by June 30th, during which time there was a relative lull in the fighting. Since this deadline passed without the Houthis retreating, there has been an escalation in the violence.

The humanitarian situation inside Hudaydah city is critical with water shortages due to damaged water pipes, shops and money exchange places being only intermittently open and businesses closing down. Food and fuel prices have rapidly increased.

Airstrikes in Hudaydah governorate and at the southern outskirts of the city continue, with several children being killed or injured over the past week.

Most of Save the Children’s projects in Hudaydah governorate and city remain open and the team is regularly updating on the needs of those projects in the current situation.

RESPONSE MAP IN HUDAYDAH

Since early May, UAE-backed forces have been advancing towards Hudaydah , a port city on Yemen’s west coast and a main conduit for commercial and humanitarian aid. On 14th June, anti-Houthi forces launched an attack on Hudaydah city and there has subsequently been violence. Thus far, airstrikes and fighting have largely concentrated on the outskirts of the city and the main roads around the city – the city centre and port area have not been directly targeted. However, armed violence is reported to be slowly reaching residential areas, putting civilians in grave danger.

Despite a reduction of the number of staff on the ground, the majority of Save the Children programmes are still running, and the team in Hudaydah have done a lot of preparedness work in the past weeks to mitigate the impact on children and their families. Around 600 IDP’s inculding children have received cash transfer in Bait Al Faqih district. In addtion, the team have distributed medical supplies to Save the Children supported health facilities to ensure they have sufficient supplies for the next three months, increased the number of Community Volunteers in districts where people may be displaced, distributed cash, and are carrying out essential Child Protection activities.

SAVE THE CHILDREN’S OVERALL RESPONSE

Since March 2015, conflict has spread to 21 of Yemen’s 22 governorates, prompting a large scale protection crisis and aggravating an already severe humanitarian situation brought on by years of poverty, poor governance and instability. Today, 22.2 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. This includes 11.3 million children.

Since the beginning of the response in May 2015, Save the Children has reached more than 3 million people including 1.9 million children.

KEY MESSAGES

Save the Children is urgently calling on all warring parties

  • to respect their obligations under IHL and to take all feasible precautions to protect children and their families and civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, from the impact of hostilities;

  • to ensure that civilians can safely escape active areas of conflict;

  • to ensure that humanitarian access to civilians, and refrain from depriving civilians of basic necessities such as food, water and medical supplies.

Save the Children calls on governments, especially in the UK, the US and France, to pressure the warring parties

  • to stop the fighting and spare the Yemeni people who are trapped in this brutal war;

  • to keep Hudaydah’s port open and undamaged to facilitate all imports of food, fuel and medicines in order to prevent a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

Save the Children calls on all international governments, and especially the members of the UN Security Council

  • to publicly condemn the attack on Hudaydah and pressure the warring parties to keep the port open to avert potential death and famine for up to 300,000 children;

  • to commit to investigate any potential breaches of IHL that may occur, including the targeting of civilians and attacks on schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure;

  • to ensure that the perpetrators of violations against IHL are held accountable;

  • to stop selling arms to the SELC knowing that these arms might/could or have been used in the past against civilians or civilian infrastructure.