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Ahram Online
The United Nations urged the Yemeni warring sides to “de-escalate violence” on Wednesday, a day after one of its agencies warned “the conflict may have claimed 377,000 lives by year’s end”.
“All warring parties need to de-escalate violence and prioritise the interests of civilians over scoring military wins”, said UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg after a regional tour to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt.
A UN Development Programme report said on Tuesday that “377,000 people will have died by the end of 2021, through direct and indirect impacts of the Yemen war”.
“Nearly 60% of deaths will have been caused by consequences such as lack of safe water, hunger and disease”, the report noted. It suggested that fighting will have killed over 150,000 people directly. Projecting the impact of continued fighting into the future, the UNDP warned that “1.3 million people in total will have died by 2030”.
Grundberg stressed, “recent developments, including the ongoing battle for the strategic city of Marib, had resulted in ripple effects across Yemen”. In recent weeks, fighting has escalated on several fronts, mostly near Marib city, the internationally recognised government’s last major stronghold in Yemen’s North.
Last week, the Houthis seized a large area South of the Red Sea port city Hodeida, after government loyalist forces withdrew. The warring sides had agreed to a ceasefire a 2018 cease fire in Stockholm.
The Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-allied Houthi rebels have been embroiled in conflict since 2015, resulting in what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.
