Tabnak – As the Saudi-led coalition continues its airstrikes in Yemen, targeting mostly civilians, international concerns has been on the rise over the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country. In this vein, UN has named Yemen crisis as the worst in the world.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has devolved into a "deepening catastrophe" with most of the country's population in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, three United Nations agencies said Friday.
The World Health Organization, UNICEF and the World Food Program said in a joint statement that the situation in Yemen has become "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," and the reality on the ground is likely worse than current international assessments suggest.
Yemen is grappling with the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with some 75 percent of its population in need of humanitarian assistance, the statement said.
“More than 1,000 days of families driven from their homes by brutal violence. 1,000 days without enough food to eat and safe water to drink. 1,000 days of bombed hospitals and damaged schools. 1,000 days of children recruited to fight. 1,000 days of disease and death … of unimaginable human suffering," it added.
"Yemen has passed the tipping point into a rapid decline from crisis to deepening catastrophe," the statement further read. “Yemen’s families should not have to withstand another day of war, let alone another 1,000.”
However, it was reported early on Sunday that Saudi warplanes had conducted fresh air raids on western Yemen, causing several casualties as Riyadh continues to defy international calls to end its destructive campaign against its impoverished neighbor.
The strikes killed at least four people in Amran Province and injured two others in Hudaydah Governorate early on Sunday, Yemen's al-Masirah television network reported. The Saudi jets also bombarded the northern province Jawf and the west-central province of Sana'a.
The Saudi war was launched in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective administration.
The offensive has, however, achieved neither of its goals despite the spending of billions of petrodollars and the enlisting of the cooperation of Saudi Arabia's regional and Western allies.
The Saudi-led campaign, which is accompanied by a land, aerial and naval blockade of Yemen, has so far killed more than 13,600 people and led to a humanitarian crisis.
Reacting to international concerns, the Saudi-led coalition denounced the recent UN statement on civilian casualties in the war-torn country as “biased.” The coalition claimed in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that the UN needs to review the humanitarian work mechanism and the competence of its employees working in Yemen.
