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Edmund Fitton-Brown

British Ambassador to Yemen

Part of FCDO Human Rights UK in Saudi Arabia

9th July 2015 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Importance of a Humanitarian Pause

The people of Yemen have been suffering for too long. On 1 July the UN declared the crisis in Yemen to be a Level Three Emergency: a category reserved for the most severe, large scale and complex crises in the world. This highlights that the Yemeni people are in dire peril. Many civilians have died as a result of the conflict. More than 80% of the population – 21 million Yemenis – are in need. Of these 21 million, the UN now estimates that 12.9 million people are food insecure; with 6 million facing severe food shortages and 1.6 million suffering from acute malnutrition. Children with severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die than adults.

The situation must change rapidly or the consequences are unthinkable.

The UN’s Level Three Emergency declaration enables the UN to release further financial and human resources from its system to enhance their capacity to respond to Yemen’s crisis. The UK recently announced a further £40m for humanitarian funding in Yemen to provide food, water, emergency shelter and other life-saving assistance. Further funding is vital to providing an adequate response. I urge my friends in the international community to donate funds to the UN now.

During the Yemen Consultations in Geneva last month, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for a further humanitarian pause. The UK supports this call. I am under no illusion that the humanitarian pause in May this year was breached by Houthi/Saleh forces and other local armed groups, and there remains the potential for these forces to abuse a future pause. But the dire humanitarian situation demands a well-planned humanitarian pause so that all those in need can receive aid.

The international community and the Government of Yemen must also endorse and help implement the proposed UN Maritime Access Plan. Without further ports being made accessible to both humanitarian and commercial shipping, in particular Aden, the needs of Yemenis will not be met. And we must support all efforts to secure safe passage of goods from ports to population centres. Sadly at the moment critical imports of fuel, medical supplies, food supplies and other items are not reaching those in need.

The sustainable route to solve Yemen’s problems is via a political agreement between those in conflict. The UK fully supports the efforts of the UN Special Envoy, Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and urges all sides to work with the Special Envoy to enable him to succeed in his mission.

3 comments on “Importance of a Humanitarian Pause

  1. At the request of the Djibouti Govt and prior to Ramadan, I recce’d and planned for a refugee camp to be built specifically for the Aden refugees but sadly the international community did not fund. Still keen to deliver these projects either in Aden or wherever, to alleviate the tremendous suffering they are enduring.

  2. South Yemen – Aden to be exact is where the real crisis is and where people are being killed every minute
    sorry but nothing really reaches them from the help we all read about

    Apart from the need to know whats happening with the help sent to Aden not getting to people, something needs to be done to make sure inneed people , children and elderly get the help you are talking about

    Not only people are being killed by Houthis and Saleh but the deseases are spread everywhere and the main cause of that are the dead on streets everywhere that Houthis are not giving people the chance to pick them up as the shoot everyone (infact everything ) walking and alive

  3. Yemen has a special place in my heart and I have many friends there – particularly in the South. I visited Aden last year, the most beautiful city and the warmest and most generous people despite the poverty they suffer themselves. My heart breaks as I watch events unfold in Yemen and the frustration at not being able to do anything to help is overwhelming.

    The most important step is not only the ceasefire but also the end of the blockade on airports and ports – Humanitarian agencies must be able to bring in aid unhindered, otherwise we are witnessing the siege of an entire country and the elimination of its people on an unimaginable scale. The people of Yemen feel that the world doesn’t know about them or even worse – does know but doesn’t care. It is, as always, a combination of both.

    The crisis needs more media attention – its being ignore by western media completely and until more pressure is placed on all sides, particularly the exiled Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia in particular, we’ll all continue to be guilty of allowing this outrage to continue.

    Please please please – what can we do?

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About Edmund Fitton-Brown

Edmund Fitton-Brown was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen in February 2015. Whilst operations at the British Embassy in Sana’a remain suspended, Mr Fitton-Brown has been based…

Edmund Fitton-Brown was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen in February 2015. Whilst operations at the British Embassy in Sana’a remain suspended, Mr Fitton-Brown has been based in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Fitton-Brown joined the FCO in 1984. In his last appointment, he was Counsellor in Dubai. He has had previous postings in Riyadh, Cairo, Kuwait, Rome and Helsinki.