US Ambassador Nikki Haley lauded efforts of the UN World Food Program (WFP), the Coalition, and aid organizations on the ground in Yemen, as the ship carrying four US-supported cranes has successfully reached its destination at Hodeidah port.
These mobile cranes would improve the port’s capacity for offloading critical supplies, such as food and medicine, for the Yemeni people, she said.
“No one should ever have to live the way the people of Yemen are living. We thank our partners who helped us make this delivery possible so that we can help the tens of millions of innocent people who wake up each day facing hunger and disease,” Haley added.
The WFP said in a statement that a ship carrying the cranes it bought with funds from the United States Agency for International Development had arrived at Hodeidah port.
“With each of the mobile cranes able to handle up to 60 tons, they will significantly boost the discharge of humanitarian cargo and other relief items,” the statement said.
Hodeidah port handled around 70 percent of Yemen’s imports, including critically-needed food and humanitarian supplies.
The WFP said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates facilitated the transfer of the cranes aboard the WFP-chartered vessel MV JUIST to Yemen.
The United Nations says that more than 22 million of Yemen’s 25 million population need humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million who are in acute need — an increase of more than one million people since March 2017.
WFP Executive Director David Beasley, commenting on the news about the arrival of the cranes in Hodeida, called for additional measures in order to avoid an even greater catastrophe in Yemen.
According to him, WFP needs more access to the country, as well as accelerated procedures for approving humanitarian supplies.
The war in Yemen has killed or injured more than 5,000 children and left another 400,000 severely malnourished and fighting for their lives, according to the UN children’s agency.
In a news conference in Sana’a, Unicef representative in Yemen Meritxell Relano said that five children are killed or wounded every day in Yemen.
