YouSaid · the spoken record

Hadi

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17
first
2016-10-31
most recent
2016-10-31
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1
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un-security-council

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  1. “Last but not least, I wish to leave the Council with one thought: saving lives in Yemen is doable. It is not mission impossible. It can be done, and we have done it in many places in the world. What we want is the support of the Council. We want the support of all Member States. We want the support of the international community. There is no reason to lose even one life in Yemen, so I would repeat once again that saving lives is not mission impossible. We will do it.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  2. “Mr. Hadi: First, I should like to thank the United States for having invited me today. I think that this very much helped me to fulfil the promise that I made to the people that I would convey their suffering to the Council. Secondly, I wish to thank the Member States for listening to me. As a matter of fact, this is the first time that I feel that I am working as an ambassador, but this time an ambassador for the women and the children, an ambassador for the voiceless and an ambassador for the people in Yemen, who do not have the opportunity to come here and express what they are going through. When I was speaking, the images of the people that I met came into my mind, and I am glad that I am able to convey part of what I saw to the Council.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  3. “An entire generation is crippled by hunger today in Yemen, and we rely on the international community to support us in this challenging time. I met many people in Yemen, and I promised them that I would convey their suffering to the world.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  4. “The fluid security situation and ongoing fighting definitely do not help WFP and the rest of the humanitarians to work better to dispatch aid, to monitor and to make sure that the right intervention is carried out at the right time. That is something that we worry about, and it is one of our main concerns. On the long drive back to Sana'a, I had time to reflect on what I had seen. The situation is undoubtedly beyond critical. Resources and political support are urgently needed from the international community. In 2016, WFP in Yemen has been funded only 34 per cent of the $6 million needed. I am not a politician and WFP is proud ofits neutral and impartial stance. I am here not to discuss political matters, but rather to illustrate the impact of the current conflict on the humanitarian needs of the Yemeni people.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  5. “Overcome by emotion, I could not decide who to sympathize with more - a malnourished child sitting on a bed, too tired and sick to even cry, or his mother next to him, too hungry and tired to support her child. That really hurt me, not only as a humanitarian worker but as a father. Hunger and malnutrition are solvable problems but only through the right intervention at the right time. That is why we need to focus on helping the Yemeni people. That is why we have to make sure that we have the right access. I would like to thank the donors that have supported and continue to support WFP in implementating such programmes. We have been able to work and assist, but only where we have access. There are also challenges in getting timely security clearances for the delivery of assistance.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  6. “I am sure many of those present have seen the disturbing images on the news recently, including the heartbreaking photograph of 18-year-old, Ms. Saida Ahmed Baghili. She was in the hospital when we visited. The doctors told me that they had been seeing an increase in children with severe acute malnutrition. Malnutrition compromises the immune system of those children who, like Saida, suffer from other health complications. That all leading to high rates of child mortality. The global acute malnutrition rate among children in Al-Hudaydag, like Saida is one of the highest around the world. The images of those children and their mothers shocked me and my colleagues. We all stood helpless.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  7. “I was even told that the labourers are no longer feeling safe enough to work in the port, so there is a lot of congestion, a lack of equipment and labourers who are not working. Even a WFP vessel that was carrying urgently needed food had been waiting for weeks to dock so that the food could be delivered to the people who needed it. Our next stop was Al-Thawra hospital in Al-Hudaydah, which was a visit that proved to be the defining moment of my mission. I saw the faces of children that have been engraved in my mind as iconic images of the crisis in Yemen. I saw children and images - this time real ones - that I have never seen in my 25 years of working for the World Food Programme. I will never forget the children that I saw.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  8. “The road from Hajjah to Al-Hudaydah was the same road that I remember from 20 years ago. I have driven that road many times, except that this time it was destroyed. Some bridges were destroyed; it was a bumpy road and we had to take too many detours. It was difficult. I then wondered how the road was going to be used when the rainy season started. How is food going to be moved from Al-Hudaydah to the rest of the governorates? Then we visited the port of Al-Hudaydah. As everybody has said, I looked at the cranes and the port equipment and so many things were damaged. Yemen imports 90 per cent of its food requirements. The port of Al-Hudaydahis a lifeline to many Yemeni people.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  9. “Everyone I met spoke about the increasing food prices. Food prices are more than 20 per cent higher than they were before the war. Yemen's middle class is now joining the ranks of those who cannot put food on the table for their children. That is really worrying. Many civil servants have not been paid for few months now. They are no longer even able to purchase food. On the road from Hajjah to Al-Hudaydah, we stopped along the mountains to speak to one of the farmers. He was harvesting millet and recounted to us the details of how his crops had been damaged because of the conflict. When I asked him how he was planning to survive and what he was going to do given that he had already lost his harvest, he kept repeating the words that I heard from almost every struggling Yemeni that I met, which translate to "we are in the hands of God".”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  10. “Since February, WF P has had to split rations to ensure that we reach as many food insecure people as possible. We had already planned to reach 3 million people, but with the rapid increase in the number of hungry people, we were trying to give everybody something. Our teams and partners have been forced to reach 6 million people every month with half a ration. That is not the best way to fight malnutrition, but it is the way to keep as many people alive as possible in this situation. Many families were generous enough to share their struggles with me and the team. They told us how they experience hunger every day and, sadder still, how they see it in the faces of their children. For the first time, I found myself helpless and unable to offer even words of support, let alone promises ofincreased help and assistance that we might offer.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  11. “I would have seen parents looking at their dying children who could not afford the long journey to the hospitals - hospitals that may or may not have had the capacity to respond to them. According to UNICEF , 1.5 million children in Yemen suffer from acute malnutrition, including 370,000 with severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that requires urgent treatment. The figure of 370,000 represents an astonishing increase of 65 per cent from 2014. Children suffering from severe malnutrition are 10 times more at risk of dying than their peers because their immune systems are extremely weak. Our next stop was at the WFP General Food Distribution office in Hajjah. The streets were crowded with thousands of people lined up at the entrance.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  12. “In simple terms, that means they are one step away from hunger. Once I left Sana'a, I went to Hajjah to see and speak to people in the field. Our first stop was at the health centre. It was crowded, with people queued up almost until the entrance of the hospital. Some of the beds had two kids in them. Almost all of the children that I saw were malnourished, and some were severely malnourished. The mothers of those children told me that they had had to travel long distances from remote areas in order to make it to the clinic. They told me that they had to borrow money from neighbours and relatives, and even to sell their assets, in order to pay for treatment. I am sorry to say that that is the positive side of things. I can only imagine what I would have seen if I had had the opportunity to visit more remote locations.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  13. “The food security situation in Yemen is deteriorating rapidly. Hunger is becoming epidemic everywhere. This June, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification revealed that over 14 million people in Yemen are food insecure. Of those, 7 million are severely food insecure. It is one thing to read those reports, but it is another to go and speak with a mother and father who cannot serve a meal to their children at the end of the day. As Mr. O'Brien said, those people do not know when their next meal is coming. It is really scary to not know if you can offer your children a meal. In some governorates, 70 per cent of the population is struggling to feed themselves. Nine out of Yemen's twenty-two governorates are classified as level three. In other words, those governorates are at emergency levels of food insecurity.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  14. “They truly looked sad as they watched another United Nations convoy pass through the streets of Sana'a, not knowing if it was a sign of hope or an end to the devastating war. When I arrived at the office, again, I looked into the faces of the staff and met with them. When I met with the national staff, I especially sensed that they were actually torn between fulfilling their humanitarian duties and taking care of their own crises at home. Many among the United Nations staff are actually displaced within Sana'a. For the first few days ofmy mission in Sana'a, I met with local authorities civil servants. The one message that came up consistently in every single meeting was that needs are increasing. There is a growing number of people who are in desperate need of assistance and the humanitarian operations are not keeping up.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  15. “How do people come back to Yemen if they are stranded outside the country. If someone required medical evacuation, I wondered, how would that situation be handled? As a staff member for the World Food Programme, I also thought about what would happen if we were asked to carry out an airlift for urgently needed food and medicines to Sana'a. Would the airport be able to handle such an operation? I really do not know. I began to ask my colleagues if the airport could handle such an operation. On our way to the WFP offices from the airport, I really looked into the faces of the Yemeni people on the streets, among whom, as I mentioned, I had lived for three years. What I saw were the signs of a lot of wear and tear on their faces.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  16. “How we have reached this stage is an important question, but what is more important today is that I share with you an eyewitness account of the humanitarian situation in Yemen. 1 have just returned from Yemen after a 7-day mission. That was actually my second trip to Yemen in two months and my third since the crisis started. On my latest trip, I visited Sana'a, Haj jah and A-Hudaydah. I am not a stranger to Yemen. I worked and lived there for the World Food Programme (WFP) for three years in the 1990s. But this time, as I was approaching Sana'a's airport, looking out from the WFP-operated flight - which is one of the few special flights that still service Sana'a - I saw the damage that the airport had incurred. Several things came to mind. I wondered how people live.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source

  17. “Mr. Hadi: Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world and has been devastated by a war that has set the country back for decades. The state of Yemen is broken. That is what the Yemenis themselves told me last week. They feel as though they are dying in silence and that they have been forgotten by the world. Yemen has been plagued by years of instability and widespread poverty. Before the conflict, Yemen was already suffering. Many people were already suffering from food insecurity. Simply put, the war has aggravated that situation. Basic social services were on the verge of collapse. Today, more than 20 million people are in true need of some form of assistance.”

    2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source