HRW: UAE restricts Yemen’s access to humanitarian aid

Human Rights Watch has condemned the UAE’s arbitrary role in Yemen, including restricting humanitarian access to civilians in the country.

The organization said that it has documented that the parties to the conflict, especially the armed Houthi group, the Yemeni government and its affiliated forces, and the UAE-backed “Southern Transitional Council”, sometimes have severely restricted access to much-needed humanitarian aid.

The organization highlighted the severity of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, which is described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

It added that in Yemen, “a daily struggle for survival, and this is the reality of many in Yemen, where the dire humanitarian crisis, which was exacerbated by years of armed conflict, forced millions to live in the worst famine the world has seen in decades, according to the United Nations.”

“The humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by Yemen’s economic collapse. The sharp depreciation of the Yemeni rial, which makes imported food, oil and other necessities more expensive, has dramatically reduced households’ purchasing power and harmed the livelihoods of millions of Yemenis.

The rights organization stressed that donors should pressure the parties to the conflict to remove obstacles to humanitarian aid and allow relief agencies to enter safely and unhindered to the vulnerable population.