UNITED NATIONS: The UN special envoy for Yemen said on Thursday that “very good progress” was being made towards a ceasefire in the country, although military activities regrettably “continue on a number of fronts” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council via video conference that work was underway in “reaching consensus” over ceasefire and political dialogue proposals submitted on Friday.

“We expect them to agree on and formally adopt these agreements in the immediate future,” he said.

He said agreements include economic and humanitarian measures such as release of prisoners and detainees, opening Sanaa airport, paying civil servant salaries, opening access roads, and ensuring entry at Hudeidah ports for ships carrying commodities that will help in the fight against Covid-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

“We are redoubling our efforts to bridge the outstanding differences between the parties,” he said.

But Griffiths added that he feared fighting would continue on the ground until agreement was reached on the proposals.

The city of Marib, east of the capital of Sanaa, he said “remains the center of gravity of this war.”

Meanwhile a ceasefire implemented in early 2019 for the western Hodeida region is violated “on a daily basis,” he added.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed over the past five years in the war between a Saudi-led military coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control large parts of Yemen including Sanaa.

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, warned that “more than one million people could suddenly be on the move,” if conflict expands in Marib.

“In the first quarter of this year, civilian casualties have risen every month, with more than 500 people killed or injured,” he said. “One in every three civilian casualties has been a child.”

So far only one case of Covid-19 has been confirmed in Yemen, where around 80pc of the population, or 24 million people, require humanitarian aid.

But aid groups fear that could be a harbinger of a catastrophic outbreak given Yemen’s shattered health system and widespread hunger and disease after five years of war in which more than 100,000 have been killed.

Griffiths and Lowcock told the Security Council that “Yemen cannot face two fronts at the same time: a war and a pandemic.”

The UN helps “more than 13 million people across the country” every month, including nearly 12 million with food assistance, according to Lowcock.

UN agencies “estimate they need more than $900 million to carry them through July,” he told the Security Council.

Lowcock also warned that the world’s largest aid operation needed money and that three-quarters of the United Nations 41 major programs “will start closing down in the next few weeks if we can’t secure additional funds.” “This means we will have to start eliminating many of the activities that may offer Yemenis’ the best chance to avoid Covid-19,” Lowcock said.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2020