New York: The UN Security Council discussed the situation in Yemen on Monday, as members listened to a briefing from UN Special Representative for Yemen Hans Grundberg and Head of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) Martin Griffiths.

Grundberg said that there are concrete and decisive steps that the parties can take now to achieve long-term peace in the country, stressing the need to “not lose sight of the intrinsic value” of this goal in light of the uncertainty in the region.

He added that a peaceful and just solution is still possible despite the challenges, noting that his contacts with the parties to make progress on the UN roadmap continue and that he continues to explore de-escalation and confidence-building, preparations for a nationwide ceasefire and the resumption of an inclusive political process.

For his part, Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the Yemeni people deserve significant progress for the better af
ter nearly ten years of brutal conflict and overwhelming difficulties, and the world deserves to see that conflicts can be ended “based on justice and the popular desire for peace.”

Over the past three years since he took over as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, there have been major moments of hope for Yemen, including a UN-brokered truce in 2022 that was “one of the rare bright moments we see in our world today,” but he emphasized that the country is not out of crisis yet, and things can deteriorate quickly as they have in the past.

“Hunger – the threat that characterized this crisis – continues to haunt the people of Yemen. The modest improvements in food security and malnutrition rates following the UN-brokered truce have all but disappeared,” Griffiths said, adding, ‘Levels of severe food deprivation remain alarmingly high across the country and are expected to worsen further when the lean season begins in June.’

Source: Jordan News Agency