UNITED NATIONS: In ‘a major breakthrough’, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Tuesday that its first ship since the eruption of conflict in Yemen in March berthed in the port of Aden after repeated attempts to reach large numbers of increasingly desperate people.

“In the coming days we hope to reach more people, not only in Aden but throughout Yemen,” said Muhannad Hadi, WFP’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, in the latest report on the toll the fighting is taking, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)reported that at least 165 civilians, including 53 children and 23 women, were killed between July 3 and 15, and another 210 were injured.

“The majority of the casualties are reported to have been caused by air strikes, but civilians are also regularly being injured and killed by mortar fire and in street fighting,” OHCHR Spokesperson Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

“The total death toll since 26 March is now at least 1,693 civilians, with another 3,829 injured,” Mr Colville said.

As humanitarian needs mounted and intense fighting continued in Yemen, WFP announced that the MV Han Zhi, with 3,000 metric tonnes of food – enough to feed 180,000 people for one month – docked at Aden’s oil port of Al-Buraiqa.

Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2015

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