70 organizations call for opening Sanaa airport, lifting restrictions on Hodeidah ports

SANAA, Sept. 19 (YPA) – Civil society organizations in Yemen have on Sunday called on the United Nations to ease the humanitarian situation for  the Yemenis through urgent measures, including lifting the coalition blockade and neutralizing the economy.

More than 16 million Yemenis are suffering from hunger this year, according to a statement issued by 70 local civil society organizations.

Nearly 50,000 Yemenis are starving to death in famine-like conditions, making the humanitarian situation in Yemen worse than ever.

The statement appealed to the United Nations to take a package of measures immediately, including reopening Sana’a airport for commercial flights and patients as a humanitarian need, lifting restrictions on Hodeidah ports, particularly regarding  the entry of fuel vessels, stepping up efforts to stop the war and raising the level of humanitarian assistance.

It further called for lifting all restrictions on the commercial and humanitarian import of food, fuel and medical supplies across all Yemeni ports and expanding the humanitarian response to include economic recovery efforts, helping to lay the foundations for the rehabilitation of basic services.

The statement  also called  on the United Nations to work on the payment of salaries to all employees in the units of all the administrative apparatus of the state, with emphasis on giving priority to the education and health sectors. The two sector represent 85% of the total staff of the administrative apparatus.

It stressed the need to neutralize humanitarian work, the economy, education and health from conflict and to pay the salaries of retirees.

E.M