Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

London, 13 February 2025

As delivered

Thank you, Mr. President.

I also thank Special Envoy Grundberg for his energetic commitment to peace in Yemen.

Mr. President,

I hope the Council will join me in grief and outrage at the death of our much-loved World Food Programme colleague who died this week in detention by the Houthi de facto authorities.

Like the Special Envoy and Secretary-General, my thoughts are with his colleagues and family.

As I have cause to hear much too often, we must protect humanitarian workers.

Mr. President,

The humanitarian appeal for Yemen, which we released last month, paints a grim picture. 19.5 million people need humanitarian support.

Millions are hungry and at acute risk of life-threatening illness. Children and women make up more than three quarters of those in need.

According to World Food Programme reporting in December, 64 per cent of the population of Yemen were unable to meet their minimum food needs – up 3 percentage points even from November.

That number will rise again this month, driven by lean season scarcity and the rising food prices.

Mr. President,

As in any crisis, children suffer first and suffer most. 3.2 million children in Yemen are not in school.

Half of all children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished. Seventy per cent of three- and four-year-olds have not received a full course of vaccinations.

And children under the age of 5 are dying at a horrific rate, mainly from preventable or treatable conditions – in 2023, an average of five every hour.

Mr. President,

Despite significant risks, humanitarian operations across Yemen are largely continuing, but the detention, as described by the Special Envoy, of more UN staff in January has led to tough decisions regarding the ability of the UN system as a whole to deliver for those in need.

UN and humanitarian partners simply cannot be expected to operate in the absence of guarantees of their safety.

Faced with real risks to the safety and security of staff, we have been forced to temporarily pause operations in Sa’ada Governorate.

We remain fully committed to assisting the millions in need, and we hope that the pause will only be for a short period.

To this end, we are taking all steps to preserve our capacity to restart operations once security guarantees have been obtained.

Mr. President,

Globally, humanitarians are overstretched, underfunded and under attack. We face this growing challenge in a spirit of cooperation and pragmatism, guided by the urgent needs of those we serve.

The situation in Yemen is perilous. My three asks for the Council:

First, get UN and civil society staff released. They are there on your behalf. Protect them, as international humanitarian law demands.

Because to save lives, humanitarian workers need to talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Second, back us to return UN operations at full capacity, and – amid mounting global funding challenges – give us the money to deliver for those we serve.

Third, don’t take actions which hit the access of civilians to essential services. Political and security decisions should not punish affected communities by limiting the flow of essential commodities into Yemen.

Any severe disruptions to that pipeline – commercial or humanitarian – will have cascading negative consequences for Yemeni communities already on the precipice of disaster. These lifelines must remain viable and undisrupted.

Mr. President,

Almost 20 million Yemenis are in dire need of our support, right now.

This is a tough place for us to deliver that humanitarian support, and I recognize that it is a tough place for you to get the political judgements right.

But we must be brave, principled and unflinching in our effort to save lives.

Thank you.