The United Nations is in the process of expanding its role in southern Yemen, UN humanitarian coordinator Jamie McGoldrick said in Aden on Thursday.
"We are bringing in more internationals to be based here and also to go to the provinces to support the humanitarian needs in those places," McGoldrick told reporters at Aden airport.
Asharq Al-Awsat learned that several international envoys visited the country in the past two days.
Yemen's internationally recognized government declared Aden its capital in mid-2015, after being driven out of Sana’a by Houthi insurgents.
The coup staged by Houthis and Saleh’s forces on the legitimate Yemeni government led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has caused a crisis that has left 17 million people facing dire food shortages including nearly seven million who are one step away from famine in the country.
Agence France Presse quoted the coordinator as saying that he met with officials in the Yemeni government in Aden and expressed the need for the ministries in the city to be functioning properly, for budgets to be given to them so they can do their work.
McGoldrick said he also met with officials from the Arab coalition, adding he had a chat about the organization’s expansion plans.
The legitimate government has paid the salaries of civil servants despite many difficulties it faced after moving the Central Bank from Sana’a to Aden.
