New York (VNA) - Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UnitedNations has called on the international community to join hands in preventingfamine and to continue helping Yemen in 2021.
During his speech at an online meeting of the UN Security Council onDecember 14, Quy expressed hisconcern about recent escalating skirmishes in Yemen, while urging relevant parties in conflicts in the country to comply with international humanitarian law and international humanrights law, and soon agree with the Joint Declaration for a nationwide ceasefire.
The Vietnamese diplomat acknowledged the approval of the Houthirebel group in Yemen forUN experts to access the SAFER tankeroffshore Yemen for repairing, and applauded the UN and its member countries for their financial andequipment support for the team to carry out their mission.
Reports presented at themeeting revealed that up to 16,500 Yemenis are living in a famine-like situation,and the figure is expected to triple by June 2021 if the situation continues.
In addition, 13.5 million Yemenis are facing a food shortage and this figure couldrise to 16 million in 2021. Economic crisis, rising commodity prices, anddecreasing value of local currency are also the challenges facing the country.
Meanwhile, humanitarian programmes do not have financial resources to deployand have difficulty in reaching many parts of Yemen.
Participants urged relevant parties to fulfil their obligations to protectcivilians and respect the ceasefire, as well as soon have dialogues towards an earlyadoption of the Joint Declaration for a nationwide ceasefire./.