YouSaid · the spoken record

Lowcock

lines on the record: 570
first: 2017-09-27
most recent: 2021-06-15
sittings or episodes: 46
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That is equivalent to more than 40 per cent of average fuel imports in any given month since the temporary blockade was lifted about a year ago. To protect the food supply and avoid famine, parties to the conflict must also avoid damaging or cutting off access to supporting infrastructure. The main eastern road from Al-Hudaydah to Sana'a remains closed due to insecurity, forcing traders and humanitarian partners to reroute shipments, which costs more money and more time. Several humanitarian sites are in areas in Al-Hudaydah that have recently changed hands. They include the Red Sea Mills, which contain enough grain to feed more than 3 million people for a month. I understand that talks are proceeding on options to ensure that those critical supplies can now reach the people who need them.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“To avoid famine, it is essential to keep all ports functioning and to remove obstacles to imports or the domestic distribution of essential goods. I therefore welcome the Government of Yemen's decision this week to suspend Cabinet Decree 75 for food imports. Experts had warned that the immediate implementation of that Decree could lead to worse food shortages and higher prices. But although the Government has suspended Decree 75 for food, it remains in place for fuel, which is critical to pumping drinking water, maintaining sanitation systems and running hospital generators. Since the enforcement of Decree 75 for fuel began last month, the coalition has, at the request of the Government of Yemen, denied entry to four commercial vessels carrying nearly 53,000 tons of fuel.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“Let me repeat again that, as we have previously said and as Martin touched on, the United Nations is ready to play an enhanced role in ensuring the appropriate use of key facilities around Al-Hudaydah, such as the port. The second area for which I sought the support of the Council is to facilitate and protect the supply of food and other essential goods across the country. As members know, Yemen imports nearly all of its food, fuel and medicine. Commercial food imports in October through the ports of Al-Hudaydah and Saleef - where most of the food enters the country - fell by more than 50 per cent as compared to September. Only 17 ships discharged cargo in those ports in October - the second-lowest monthly figure ever recorded.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“Some programmes have been scaled back in Al-Hudaydah and the staff overseeing them have left - I hope only temporarily. Other important emergency programmes remain in place, and agencies are restocking supplies inside Al-Hudaydah in an attempt to ensure that critical humanitarian operations can continue if the situation gets worse. So, for all the reasons Martin Griffiths has just cited and those I have just given to the Council, it remains urgent, as Martin has said, for the parties to agree a cessation of hostilities. We both issued statements reiterating that earlier this week. In the past two days, we have seen a welcome de-escalation and what appears to be at least a pause in the fighting in Al-Hudaydah, but what we need to know is that this lull is going to be sustained.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“A second hospital was damaged after becoming caught up in the crossfire as front lines shifted around the city. Fighters also took up positions inside that hospital and on its roof, placing the entire facility at grave risk. The impact of violence in Al-Hudaydah has compounded the chaos and hardships facing people who were already in desperate straits. Needs are enormous; perhaps 30 per cent of people still in the city are barely surviving, including about a quarter of children who are malnourished. As the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, recently noted, the most vulnerable people in the whole country are sitting there in Al-Hudaydah. These are the poorest of the poor. The fighting has also had an impact on humanitarian operations.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“Since 30 October, United Nations sources have observed nearly 800 separate incidents of shelling, armed clashes or air strikes across Yemen. Some of the fiercest fighting has been in Al-Hudaydah, which is where most of the crucial infrastructure needing protection actually is. Those incidents too often have devastating consequences for civilians. To cite just one recent incident, a bus carrying civilians fleeing conflict in Al-Hudaydah came under attack on Tuesday, killing seven people. Critical civilian infrastructure has not been spared either. Last Sunday, patients - some of whom were still connected to medical devices - reportedly fled Al-Hudaydah's largest public hospital into the street amidst large explosions. Several days later, the same hospital was damaged by shrapnel, and then again by shelling yesterday.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“That is why I sought the Council's support on five key requests, which, if they are fully implemented, would save the lives of millions of Yemenis, sparing them from an entirely avoidable catastrophe. So today I would like to update the Council on where we stand with those five actions. My first request was for a cessation of hostilities to be implemented in and around the infrastructure and facilities on which the aid operation and commercial importers rely. Many Council members made similar requests during the 23 October meeting and after that, and the Secretary-General reinforced that position in his statement of 2 November. What in fact happened was that violence escalated on several fronts immediately after my last briefing.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“He will describe the food security situation in more detail and tell us about his visit to the country earlier this week. In my assessment, Yemen has so far avoided famine for just two reasons. First, the United Nations and humanitarian agencies are implementing the largest aid operation in the world, reaching nearly 8 million Yemenis across the country every month. Secondly, Member States and other key stakeholders have taken action when the risk of famine has intensified in the past, for example by working together to lift the temporary blockade this time last year and by providing generous, flexible, large-scale funding early this year. As I emphasized in my last briefing, we urgently need the Council to take action again now.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“The Famine Early Warning Systems Network characterizes the food security situation in Yemen as facing "a catastrophic deterioration" and warns that many of the millions of the severely food-insecure people in the country "face food consumption gaps large enough to lead to increases in human mortality". So is it a famine? With respect, I fear that that is the wrong question. A very painful lesson learned from the two famines declared this century - in Somalia in 2011 and in South Sudan in 2017 - is the fact that most fatalities occur before famine is declared. So to be clear, I am not saying that widespread famine has already taken hold in Yemen, but that is what we are trying to prevent. It is abundantly clear that Yemen is already facing mass hunger and severe food insecurity. We are fortunate to have David Beasley here today.”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: On 23 October, I warned the Security Council that a grave economic crisis and escalating conflict had pushed Yemen closer to famine than ever before (see S/PV.8379). Shortly after that briefing, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network released a new alert. The Early Warning Systems Network, which is supported by the United States, is one of the leading providers of early warning and analysis on acute food insecurity. According to the Network, "Yemen faces the largest food security emergency in the world, and the worsening humanitarian outlook requires urgent action to reduce the likelihood of significant loss of life".”
2018-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8404 (2018) · source
“Fourthly, we seek support for our efforts to improve access, needs-assessment and evidence-gathering on how the resources we have raised are being used. Finally, we need continued and more generous financing for our current humanitarian response plan. While I am - on behalf of millions of Syrians who are the beneficiaries - extremely grateful for the $1.7 billion we have raised so far in 2018, this year's plan is still less than 50 per cent funded.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“First is in the continuing implementation of the agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkey and the prevention of a military onslaught on Idleb and the surrounding areas. The humanitarian impact of that would be, as we have repeatedly told the Council, absolutely devastating to the civilian population. Secondly is the renewal for another year of resolution 2165 (2014), in particular to sustain cross- border aid essential to support and protect more than 3 million civilians in Idlib e most of whom are women and children - and for essential supplies and services across the north of Syria. Thirdly, we seek support in ensuring that our United Nations-Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian convoy is granted secure access to Rukban camp immediately.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“An attack by ISIL on one ofthe camps where displaced people were staying has reportedly resulted in the death and injury of civilians, as well as the abduction of more than 100 people. Some of them have since reportedly been killed. While I remain concerned about the situation in Raqqa, I want to report that the United Nations has had increasing access to the area. A September assessment visit by the World Health Organization found that health needs in Raqqa remain great, with an acute shortage of all levels of health-care services in the city. Assistance also continues to be provided to Raqqa city and the north-east, with the United Nations and our partner organizations now reaching over 600,000 people each month. In summary, and in conclusion, there are five areas where we now seek the support of Member States and the Security Council.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“Therefore, my message to all concerned is to please make the necessary arrangements to ensure the security of the humanitarian personnel and the accompanying convoy so it can proceed without delay. Intense fighting continues to affect civilians along the east bank of the Euphrates river in southern parts of Deir ez-Zor governorate. There have been reports of dozens of civilian deaths and more injuries as Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by international coalition Forces, engage in hostilities in the final remaining enclade in Syria of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Approximately 7,000 people have been displaced from Hajin due to fighting in recent weeks. Up to 15,000 people remain trapped inside ISIL- controlled areas.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“In Rukban, on the Syria-Jordan border, the United Nations - in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent - had prepared to undertake a large delivery of assistance from Damascus for 50,000 people, a vaccination campaign for approximately 10,000 children and a rapid needs assessment. The convoy was planned for Saturday, 27 October, but reports of insecurity along the route forced us to postpone it. The population at Rukban has not received assistance since January this year and they are increasingly desperate. There are continuing reports of children dying due to poor sanitary conditions and a lack of health care. That dire humanitarian situation cannot be allowed to continue. The United Nations is ready and willing to proceed with the convoy immediately.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“We continue to take every step possible to ensure United Nations operations meet the highest standards. The way we do that was reviewed in detail earlier this year at the request of the Council, and we reported on it to the Council in June (S/PV.8296). We train implementing partners and local authorities on the implementation of international humanitarian law; we advocate for principled delivery of assistance with non-State armed opposition groups inside Syria; and we have developed a code of conduct, signed by most non-State armed groups operating in north-west Syria, committing to respect international humanitarian law. We also take all possible steps to ensure compliance with money-laundering and counter- terrorism legislation applicable to the United Nations. Let me turn to other areas of concern in Syria.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“Nearly 1,000 trucks are delivering plastic sheeting, winter clothes and boots, heaters and stoves. Critical supplies also continue to be delivered into north-east Syria through the Al-Yaarubiyah border crossing from Iraq. In the first nine months of 2018, over 750,000 people on average each month were reached with food aid through United Nations cross-border activities. Sustaining that is essential for those in need, in terms of both providing aid and supporting service delivery. It is for that reason that the extension of the provisions of resolutions 2165 (2014) and 2393 (2017) remains of the highest importance. The Secretary-General in his report (S/2018/947), and I now, call upon the Council to renew the resolution for another 12 months. Cross-border operations continue to be very closely managed and monitored.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“The discussions have led to important agreements in extending the United Nations ability to assess needs as comprehensively as possible, fully in compliance with our mandate, as we prepare the humanitarian needs overview and the United Nations-coordinated response plan that we will be publishing for Syria for 2019. I hope to be able to report progress to the Council in carrying out expanded needs-assessment exercises in the next few months. The United Nations cross-border operation from Turkey has continued to reach hundreds of thousands of people in need every month. It has been scaled up in recent weeks to ensure pre-positioning of assistance as a contingency measure in the event of a military escalation, as well as to provide winterization support.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“And how do we know, if we give you money, that it will really get to the people who need it most? If people whose money we are seeking are not persuaded by the answers we provide to those questions, my experience is that they do not give us the money we ask for. Ensuring that we work on the basis of the humanitarian principles is therefore both a matter of complying with our mandates, as we want to and as we must do, but it is also a matter of practical necessity. I have discussed those issues in detail with the Government on a number of occasions in recent weeks.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“The United Nations mandate for humanitarian action, set by the Council in its series of resolutions and also by the General Assembly in resolution 46/182, adopted in 1991, requires us to consult the Government. We think that is very important. At the same time, our mandate also emphasizes the principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality in humanitarian action, in particular to ensure that assistance is provided on the basis of need, and not driven or determined by any other considerations. The humanitarian system, as the Council knows, is financed on a voluntary basis. The main questions I am asked by all those whose help I seek in financing humanitarian action everywhere around the world are always the same. How do you know what the needs are?”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“They have also agreed to facilitate a greater number of missions and that we can more systematically deploy United Nations personnel with aid that is often delivered in partnership with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. We look forward to the rapid implementation of that approach. It will allow our teams on the ground to undertake essential independent assessments of the situation and see more of who is being helped and how. At the same time, we will continue to submit plans for Government agreement for crossline access into north-west Syria. That leads me to a broader point I wanted to make about the approach we are taking to assessing and meeting humanitarian need across Syria.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“Over the first seven months of the year, in total across the country, an average of almost 5.5 million people were reached with life-saving assistance every month. In September, nearly 2.5 million people were reached with food aid from Damascus. That includes some people in areas that have recently come under the control of the Government, with assistance often delivered through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. However, in many areas that recently changed control, the United Nations has not had sustained access. We have discussed this with the Syrian authorities, who have made clear that areas under their control should now be reached in a comprehensive and regular manner from Damascus.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: I concluded my briefing to the Security Council last month (see S/PV.8355) with a question: Would the agreement reached between the Russian Federation and Turkey on Idlib provide only a moment of respite, or would it represent the start of a more stable future for millions of civilians in that part of the country? We have seen a glimmer of hope in the weeks of relative quiet since the agreement was reached. It is extremely important for millions of people in Idlib that that remains the case. The stakes are very high because the alternative is humanitarian suffering on a scale that would overwhelm all ability to respond, devastating a population that is already weakened through years of conflict, displacement and deprivation. The United Nations and its partner organizations continue to reach people in need throughout Syria.”
2018-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8384 (2018) · source
“Thirdly, there needs to be a larger and faster injection of foreign exchange into the economy through the Central Bank, along with expediting credit for traders and the payment ofpensioners and civil servants. Fourthly, there must be an increase in funding and support for the humanitarian operation. Given projected increases in needs - potentially up to 14 million people, as I have said - and the inevitable lead times, aid agencies need additional resources now to start scaling up relief efforts. Fifthly, with so many lives at stake, we call upon the belligerents to seize this moment to engage fully and openly with the Special Envoy to end the conflict. He and I talk about these issues all the time, and we have discussed the five asks I have set out before members of the Council today.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“First, there must be a cessation of hostilities in and around all the infrastructure and facilities on which the aid operation and commercial importers rely. A humanitarian ceasefire would reflect the obligations of the parties to the conflict to uphold international humanitarian law and to do everything possible to facilitate the delivery ofhumanitarian assistance. As we have previously made clear, the United Nations is ready to play an enhanced role in ensuring the appropriate use of key facilities, especially around Al-Hudaydah. Secondly, we must protect the supply of food and essential goods across the country. Humanitarian and commercial imports must flow into all ports and onwards to their final destinations. That means lifting existing and planned restrictions on imports and keeping the main transport routes open and safe.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“If current trends continue, water services and sanitation facilities will inevitably be either curtailed or cut off altogether. The Government has announced that it intends to extend enforcement of the new regulations to food imports starting 9 November. Unless steps are taken to expedite the process or waive those planned new requirements, imports of key food commodities and fuel could, in our assessment, fall by one half. That would, for reasons I have already explained, be the death knell for countless innocent civilians, most of them women and children. Therefore, I call on all stakeholders to do everything possible to avert catastrophe. We urgently seek the support of the Council for action in five areas.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“At the same time, the Government of Yemen appears to be planning further restrictions on traders importing essential commodities. Traders trying to import six key commodities - wheat, rice, sugar, milk, cooking oil and fuel derivatives - are now being told that, as a result of new Government regulations, they must secure lines of credit from the Central Bank. But only a handful of lines of credit have been issued since June, most of them in just the past few days. The enforcement of those regulations is already having an alarming effect. Two vessels carrying more than 29,000 metric tons of fuel have, at the Government's request, been refused entry into Yemen in recent days. Last month I described the impact of desperate fuel shortages.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“But because the aid operation cannot conceivably meet the needs of all Yemenis, I called last month for an urgent and substantial injection of foreign exchange and the resumption of payments to pensioners and key public sector workers, such as teachers and health professionals. There have been constructive discussions on both those issues and indications of further support, especially from Gulf countries. Today's announcement that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will provide $70 million to cover allowances for 135,000 teachers all over the country is important. However, I fear that overall action in those areas still looks to be both too small and too slow to reverse the trajectory towards famine, so my plea is that those concerned address that as a matter of great urgency.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“The collapse in the domestic economy has been partially - but only partially - mitigated by aid efforts, including generous funding this year from the Gulf, the United States, European countries and other donors, and that has allowed the United Nations and its partners to dramatically scale up relief efforts. Aid agencies continue to implement the world's largest humanitarian relief operation in Yemen. More than 200 organizations are working through the United Nations humanitarian response plan, and we have delivered assistance to each and every one of Yemen's 333 districts this year. As many as 8 million people a month are receiving life-saving assistance under the programme.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“The available foreign exchange, from what little remains of oil exports, money sent home from Yemenis out of the country and international assistance, has been simply inadequate to finance adequate levels of import to support the population. Since 2015, the gross domestic product - the national income of Yemen - has shrunk by 50 per cent. More than 600,000 jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands of civil servants and pensioners have not received regular payment since 2016. More than 1.5 million families are no longer receiving support through public safety nets and more than 80 per cent of Yemenis now live below the poverty line.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Delays in issuing visas, restrictions on the importation of equipment and cargo, retractions of permits, interference in humanitarian assessment exercises, interference in monitoring and other obstructions all limit the ability of humanitarian agencies to provide life-saving assistance to innocent civilians. In the absence of a cessation of hostilities, especially around Al-Hudaydah, where fighting for more than four months now has damaged the key facilities and infrastructure on which the aid operation relies, the relief effort will ultimately be simply overwhelmed. The time surely has come for all parties to heed those warnings. On the economy, the central problem, as I explained last month, is that Yemen is almost entirely reliant on imports for food, fuel and medicine.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Clashes have also continued to block access to a milling facility that contains enough aid-financed grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month, and several humanitarian warehouses in the Al-Hudaydah area have now been occupied for over two months. The parties to the conflict continue to violate international humanitarian law. Since late May, more than 5,000 separate violations have been recorded, including mass civilian casualties and destruction or damage to critical civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, electricity, water systems, markets, roads and bridges.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Last month, I explained the two recent developments that have deepened the crisis: first, the intensification of fighting around Al-Hudaydah, choking the lifeline that the aid operation and commercial imports rely on; and secondly, the recent further collapse of the economy. What has happened since then on those two issues? Fierce clashes continue in Al-Hudaydah, including intense fighting, shelling and air strikes in Al-Hudaydah city over the past several days. More than 570,000 people have been forced from their homes across the Al-Hudaydah governorate since fighting escalated in the end of June. Due to ongoing clashes, the eastern road from Al-Hudaydah city to Sana'a remains blocked, which impacts trade and convoys from the key ports that serve all the population centres of northern Yemen.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Our revised assessment, which is the result of new survey work and analysis, is that the total number of people facing pre-famine conditions - meaning that they are entirely reliant on external aid for survival - could soon reach not 11 million, but 14 million. That is half of the total population of the country. Secondly, beyond the sheer numbers, while millions of people have been surviving on emergency food assistance for years, the help that they get is enough merely to survive, not to thrive. The toll is unbearably high. The immune systems of the millions of people who have been on survival support for years on end are now literally collapsing, making them - especially children and the elderly - more likely to succumb to malnutrition, cholera and other diseases.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“The blockade was removed and the supervised imports of food, fuel and medicines resumed through the Red Sea ports. What I am telling the Council today is that the situation is now much graver than on either of those two occasions. Why is that? First, it is due to the sheer number of people at risk. In my update to the Council last month, I said that an additional 3.5 million people were likely to become severely food insecure in the months ahead, in addition to the 8 million that we were already reaching each month through the United Nations coordinated response effort. That is a total of 11 million people. That is what I said on 21 September. We now think that that estimate was wrong.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Some people, perhaps including members of the Council, will be thinking, "Hang on a minute. They have told us this before and it did not happen". That is correct. We warned of famine in Yemen at the beginning of last year as part of the Secretary-General's call to action, which also flagged the risk in Somalia, South Sudan and north-eastern Nigeria. The response was a dramatic scaling up of the United Nations coordinated relief effort, which helped to mitigate the worst impact ofthe crisis at the time. I issued a similar warning when I briefed the Council on 8 November last year on the likely effect of the economic blockade that had just been imposed by the international coalition following missile attacks on Riyadh from inside Yemen.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Therefore, unable to reach care, people often simply die at home. Very few families report those deaths and the stories of those people go unrecorded. However, at the end of last year, one aid agency estimated that 130 children under the age of five were dying every day from extreme hunger and disease - nearly 50,000 little children during the course of the year. While we await the results of the assessments that are now under way, we already know that a further year of war and economic crisis have pushed millions more Yemenis towards famine. So, just to be clear, my assessment and advice to the Council is that there is now a clear and present danger of an imminent and great big famine engulfing Yemen - much bigger than anything that any professionals in this field have seen during their working lives.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Assessments conducted a year ago identified 107 out of Yemen's 333 districts to be at risk of famine, where two of those three thresholds were either already exceeded or dangerously close to being so. A further assessment exercise is now under way across the country and the initial results are expected in mid-November. It has been more difficult to confirm the position on the third criteria - the number of deaths due to starvation or starvation-related disease. However, while mortality- related data is difficult to collect and triangulate, health workers are pointing to the rising number of deaths linked to food-related factors. We also know that many deaths are hidden. Only half of the health facilities in Yemen are functioning and many Yemenis are too poor to access the ones that are open.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“It is actually a spectacular feature of progress in our era that only two famines have been declared in the past 20 years - the one that took the lives of a quarter of a million Somalis in 2011 and the famine declared last year that affected a few tens of thousands of people in South Sudan. It is that recent progress that makes what we now face in Yemen so shocking. A famine is declared when the three thresholds of food insecurity, acute malnutrition and mortality are all breached together. The three criteria are that at least one household in five faces an extreme lack of food, that more than 30 per cent of children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting, and that at least two out of every 10,000 people are dying each and every day.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“Mr. Lowcock: On 21 September, I warned the Council that we were losing the fight against famine in Yemen (see S/PV.8361). Since then, the situation has worsened. That is why, as required by resolution 2417 (2018), which the Council adopted in May, we issued the white note that was circulated late last week. In line with our obligations under the Council's resolution, my briefing today focuses on the risk of famine. Famines are mercifully rare in the modern world. They used to be ubiquitous and a relatively common occurrence all over the world throughout more than 99 per cent ofhuman history.”
2018-10-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8379 (2018) · source
“As I have said to members of the Council, the lifeline through which the aid operation runs now hangs by a thread. Thirdly, we ask all parties to find practical solutions to key issues, including the opening of an air bridge for civilians to seek medical treatment outside Yemen for diseases that are no longer treatable inside the country. That would pave the way for the opening of the airport in Sana'a. Finally, the parties need to come to the negotiating table and engage seriously with the efforts of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy on a positive path towards peace.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“First, immediate measures are needed to stabilize the economy and support the exchange rate. That includes usable liquidity for the Central Bank and the implementation of long-standing commitments to pay key public-sector salaries across the whole country, so that more people have the wherewithal to buy food and keep alive the commercial markets, which, as I have said, aid agencies cannot replace. It is, at the same time, essential to avoid any policy measures that would damage the already paper-thin confidence of commercial importers any further. Secondly, everyone with a stake in this must uphold their obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and facilitate access to vulnerable people. We have to keep all ports and main roads open, functional and safe. No humanitarian site should be used for military purposes.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“It is far from clear that the recent intensification of fighting is producing any winners. It is, though, all too abundantly clear who the losers are * millions of Yemeni civilians, most of them women and children, whose lives are now right on the line. I know that some people will want to talk about who is to blame for the position we now face. That is, with respect, the wrong question for today. The issue for today is who can do something to head off the impending catastrophe. While we will continue to push to scale up the humanitarian response, humanitarian organizations simply cannot look after the needs of all 29 million Yemenis. That is untenable. We ask the Security Council for support in three key areas to prevent a complete collapse and to safeguard the lives of millions of the most vulnerable people.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“The Red Sea Mills in Al-Hudaydah, which currently holds 45,000 tons of grain imported by the World Food Programme - enough to feed 3.5 million people for a month - has recently been inaccessible because of fighting in the local area. Armed groups have occupied humanitarian facilities. Attacks against civilians and humanitarian sites have resulted in dozens of deaths, especially of children, and serious damage has been caused to public health and water facilities and other humanitarian assets. Aid agencies, including the United Nations, still have 600 staff in Al-Hudaydah. While we have, since June, provided direct assistance to over half a million people fleeing the fighting in the governorate, aid activities, including life-saving immunization campaigns, have been delayed or prevented.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“The combination of the ports of Al-Hudaydah and Saleef, where most of Yemen's food imports arrive, the access roads from the ports to the large population centres in the north and the west of the country and the facilities in the city in which imported grain is milled before onwards transportation is the essential, irreplaceable infrastructure on which aid operations and commercial imports rely. The main Al-Hudaydah-Sana'a road, which is the principal artery used by commercial importers and humanitarian organizations to move commodities from the ports to people across the country, has been cut off in recent days due to fighting. Other routes are heavily damaged and transport times have increased, and therefore the cost has risen for humanitarian organizations and private companies.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“Fuel imports in September are only one third of what they were in August. Commercial food imports dropped from a registered 410,000 metric tons in May to 280,000 metric tons in August. That is a decrease of 30 per cent. With the confidence of shipping companies already very battered, as reflected in a 35 per cent drop in clearance requests since the blockade, any further shocks could add to the core humanitarian caseload in a way that would simply overwhelm the capacity of humanitarian organizations. Secondly, the intensification of fighting in recent weeks around Al-Hudaydah is choking the lifeline that the aid operation and commercial markets rely on.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“We are already seeing pockets of famine-like conditions, including cases where people are eating leaves because they have no other form of sustenance. We estimate that an additional 3.5 million people may soon be added to the 8 million already severely food insecure. Compounding that, the depreciation of the rial and access problems are producing unprecedented increases in the price of fuel. My team on the ground reported yesterday that people are waiting in kilometre-long queues at petrol stations. As petrol prices have doubled just this week, transportation costs have gone up and reaching a health facility or fleeing fighting when it reaches one's neighbourhood is becoming unaffordable for many families without outside help. Commercial imports of food and fuel have yet to recover from last November's blockade.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“We notify the Evacuation and Humanitarian Operation Cell in Riyadh of the operations ofthe aid agencies, and that protects aid workers, to a large degree, from being caught up in the fighting and helps the coalition to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law. But the issue I want to flag to the Council today is that two recent developments threaten to overwhelm the aid operation. First, there is a marked economic deterioration, symptomized by the depreciation of the Yemeni rial by some 30 per cent in the last month or so. Because almost all the food consumed in Yemen is imported, that depreciation translates directly into a sharp increase in the price of food for approximately 10 million Yemenis who are food insecure but are not reached by the aid operation.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“Most of the aid workers are Yemenis helping other Yemenis, often at considerable personal risk. The relief effort would also be impossible without the generous funding voluntarily provided by our donors. I want to again thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the State of Kuwait, the United States and many European countries, which together have committed about $2.6 billion, including $2 billion through the 2018 Yemen humanitarian response plan, to finance the operation. I also want to note that the aid operation would not be possible, given the intensity of the conflict, without the deconfliction system run by the coalition authorities.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source
“A third wave of the cholera outbreak has been kept at bay with intensified prevention campaigns, repairing and chlorinating water networks and vaccinating people in high-risk districts in Aden, Al-Hudaydah and Ibb. Health facilities that would have otherwise closed have remained open through an incentive programme paid to health-care workers to keep services going. Running such a large-scale relief effort requires an enormous operation on the ground. I want to pay tribute to all the aid workers - thousands of them from United Nations agencies, including UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and others - as well as to the Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations and countless international, and especially national, civil society organizations.”
2018-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8361 (2018) · source