The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen has provided all facilitation and necessary clearances for the WFP-chartered container ship (AS PAOLA) to move medical equipment and food assistance from Saudi Arabia’s Port of Jeddah to Yemen’s Hodeidah Port.
The container ship departed Jeddah on Monday towards Hodeidah, which has been controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militias for five years. The vessel is expected to arrive on Wednesday morning.
The AS PAOLO is providing shipping services for the World Food Program for humanitarian and relief action in Yemen after one of two previously WFP-chartered ships discontinued shipping services after entering quarantine in Hodeidah.
These facilitations are part of the Coalition’s efforts to support relief organizations operating in Yemen to provide humanitarian and relief assistance to the Yemeni people, ensuring that it reaches those truly in need, given the deteriorating humanitarian situation due to the Houthi coup against the Yemeni government.
The container ship en-route to Hodeidah is carrying 1,869 tons of medical equipment and 8,867 tons of food assistance under the WFP’s humanitarian and relief efforts in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has been the top donor for WFP operations in Yemen in the past five years through the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plans.
The Houthi militias’ have been deliberate in deepening of the Yemeni people’s suffering in areas under their control or cities they are besieging. They have been obstructing the work of UN and non-government agencies.
Executive director of the UN WFP, David Beasley addressed the militias’ pillaging of WFP-provided assistance before the UN Security Council.
“In Yemen, we’re fortunate enough to have the money we need…we just don’t have the access,” he said.
The official WFP twitter account published the address, stressing that the said obstruction and the WFP is being prevented from feeding the hungriest people in Yemen, and that food assistance provided by the UN is being diverted in areas controlled by the terrorist Houthi militias at the expense of children, women and men.