“Checkpoints, insecurity and high transport prices make it difficult to move about. Access to basic health care is too far away for many, and transport to expensive,” the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporterson Tuesday at a press briefing in Geneva.
He said, “Scores of children were found to be malnourished, while the accumulation of garbage makes crowded situations worse, raising fears that disease will spread.”
Until its official end on 17 May, the truce greatly facilitated access to areas which had been extremely difficult to reach.
In the first four days of the humanitarian pause, relief workers dispatched enough food aid to cover one month of food needs for more than 273,000 people, delivered fuel to ensure safe water access for 1.2 million people, and transported or distributed enough essential non-food items for nearly 32,000 people. Some 47 metric tonnes of medical supplies were given to hospitals and health facilities in five governorates.
Edwards acknowledged that the truce had permitted UNHCR to fly in more aid, transport supplies from ports to distribution hubs in the capital, Sana’a, and Aden, and to preposition and distribute aid to displaced people in previously hard-to-reach areas.
But, he added, insecurity, fuel shortages and other logistical challenges had hindered full implementation of the humanitarian plan during the pause and thousands of civilians were still encountering enormous difficulties.
“Teams found traumatized populations – afraid, upset and struggling to meet basic needs,” the UNHCR spokesperson continued.
Indeed, health facilities report that since 19 March, some 1,820 people have been killed and 7,330 injured due to the conflict.