TEHRAN(Basirat): United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called for stopping humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Referring to his address at Pledging Conference on Yemen, Guterres wrote
in a Twitter message "More than 22 million people in Yemen need
humanitarian aid and protection. We must prevent the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis from becoming a long-term tragedy.”
The full text of his address released by the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) website reads as follows:
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you all for being here today to show your solidarity with the women, men, girls and boys of Yemen.
And
I want to thank my co-chairs, the Governments of Sweden and
Switzerland, for hosting this conference for the second year and for
their continued humanitarian commitment.
Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
As
the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people –
three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian aid and protection.
Some
18 million people are food insecure; one million more than when we
convened last year. And a horrifying 8.4 million of these people do not
know how they will obtain their next meal.
Millions of Yemenis do
not have access to safe drinking water. Last year, 1 million people
suffered from watery diarrhoea and cholera. Half of all health
facilities are shut or not working properly, meaning there is a high
risk of another cholera epidemic.
Treatable illnesses become a
death sentence when local health services are suspended and it is
impossible to travel outside the country.
Civilians have been
facing indiscriminate attacks, bombing, snipers, unexploded ordnance,
cross-fire, kidnapping, rape and arbitrary detention.
Every ten
minutes, a child under five dies of preventable causes. And nearly 3
million children under 5 and pregnant or lactating women are acutely
malnourished. Nearly half of all children aged between six months and 5
years old are chronically malnourished and suffer from stunting, which
causes development delays and reduced ability to learn throughout their
entire lives.
Some two million children are out of school, and
2,500 schools have been destroyed or are not being used for their
original purpose.
Children are being forcibly recruited to fight,
or put to work to support their families. And families across the
country are sliding into debt and coping in any way they can. Child
marriage rates have escalated; nearly two-thirds of girls are married
before the age of 18, and many before they are 15.
Three-quarters
of displaced people are women and children, and women and girls among
them face an increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence. And the
number of women accessing services for gender-based violence has risen
by at least 30 percent, despite social constraints on reporting.
And these facts represent only a snapshot of the devastation.
Yemen’s
situation today is catastrophic. But with international support, we can
and must prevent this country from becoming a long-term tragedy.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen requires $2.96 billion to reach more than 13 million people across the country.
And we have a strong foundation on which to build.
The
humanitarian operation has expanded dramatically. At the start of last
year, partners were reaching 3 million people per month with food
assistance.
By August, we were reaching more than 7 million people every month.
At
the height of the cholera epidemic, more than 1,000 oral rehydration
centres and 234 diarrhoea treatment centres were in operation – up from
only 25 such centres earlier in this year.
Thanks to humanitarian
agencies and our partners, the cholera epidemic has been contained and
famine - even if famine is a technical concept that does not really
describe the reality as many, many people are hungry - but famine has so
far been averted, although there is no room for complacency on either
count.
Your generosity made this work possible. But your
generosity is well-deserved by the Yemeni people. In my capacity as High
Commissioner for Refugees and during more than 10 years, I worked
closely with Yemen.
Yemen has always received Somali refugees in
big numbers coming to the country, and granting them prima facie
refugee status, something that unfortunately, many other countries
around the world refused to do, even if their resources and capacities
are much larger than the resources and capacities of the Yemeni people.
The
Yemeni people have always been extremely generous to those that came to
Yemen in search of protection and assistance. And so our generosity is
also a duty to match the generosity that the Yemenis always have shown
to those in need that have been able to seek their protection.
Last
year’s donor conference raised $1.1 billion for humanitarian action in
Yemen. This year, the United Nations and our partners on the ground are
ready to do everything possible to expand our support even further. But
we need resources.
Donors have already stepped forward. The
governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have generously
provided $930 million for the Humanitarian Response Plan. They have
also pledged to secure an additional $500 million from the region. And I
deeply thank them.
Other donors have contributed some $293 million.
This means that we have already met 40 percent of our requirements for the year.
But
the scale of suffering that we see in Yemen requires rapid, full
funding for the 2018 response plan. And the plan is prioritized so that
every dollar goes where it is urgently needed.
I urge all to do whatever it is possible because the Yemeni people needs and deserves it.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
My
second message here today is that humanitarians must be able to reach
the people who need help and to do so without conditions. Humanitarian
agencies and their partners need full and unconditional access at all
times. But humanitarian agencies report access constraints in 90 percent
of districts in Yemen.
All ports must remain open to
humanitarian and commercial cargo for the medicines, the food and the
fuel needed to deliver them. And Sana’a airport is also a lifeline that
must be kept open.
It is vital to provide safe, unimpeded,
unrestricted humanitarian access to all parts of the country. And the
Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations Plan recently announced in
Riyadh was an important step in this direction.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
My final message is possibly the most important of all.
We must see action to end the conflict.
This
war is causing enormous human suffering to some of the poorest and most
vulnerable people in the world, and there are no humanitarian solutions
to the humanitarian crises.
A negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue is the only solution.
And I urge all parties to engage with my new Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, without delay.
And
I reiterate my call for full respect for international humanitarian law
and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, millions of people depend for their survival on the decisions we take today.
And
I hope you will match your participation here with action, to support
humanitarian operations and to move decisively towards lasting peace in
Yemen.
Thank you
Source:IRNA