Norwegian Refugee Council calls for reopening Yemen’s ports

SANAA – The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Monday called for reopening Yemeni ports permanently “before more people die”, it said in a statement obtained by Yemen Press Agency.

“What looked on paper to be a good policy for easing the blockade has done very little to lower prices of essential daily items like fuel and food,” said the NRC Director in Yemen, Mutasim Hamdan.

“The instability caused by the coalition’s arbitrary policies, closing ports one day and reopening them on another, is making problems worse for the Yemeni population, shipping companies, importers and vendors are left without assurance that the port will remain open, and this is serving to sustain inflation that makes food unaffordable for most Yemeni people,” he said.

“Without fuel, bulk supplies can’t be milled or transported across the country,” Hamdan said, adding that “Water pumps shut down and hospitals are left without power supply. We need to see fuel supplies coming into Yemen’s ports every week, with guarantees that there will be no interruptions, to help keep a grip on extreme needs.”