The owner of a stationery shop collects things at the damaged shop, outside a mosque hit on Wednesday by two bombings in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. Islamic State’s Yemen branch claimed responsibility for two bombings at the Al Mo’ayyad mosque in the northern district of Sanaa that killed at least 28 people and wounded 75.
AFP/Aden
The UN is waiting for $10mn to set up inspections of commercial ships carrying desperately-needed fuel and other supplies to war-torn Yemen, the spokesman said yesterday.
Yemen is heavily dependent on commercial imports for food, fuel and other basic goods, but shipments have dropped dramatically since the Saudi-led coalition began blockading key ports.
Controlling port access to Yemen has become crucial amid fears that the Shia Houthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa could receive fresh supplies of weapons.
“We are waiting for funding from member-states,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Once the funds have been raised, the new inspection regime could be set up within weeks, said Dujarric.
The deal reached between the UN, Yemen and Saudi Arabia will set up a UN verification centre based in Aden to oversee all commercial shipping of goods destined for Yemen.
The agreement was the result of months of difficult negotiations with Saudi Arabia on opening up ports to commercial deliveries.
Yemen slid deeper into turmoil when the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes in late March to stop an advance by Houthi rebels who drove the president into exile.
UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council in late June that Yemen’s imports had dropped to 15% of pre-crisis levels.
Returning from a visit to Yemen, O’Brien told the council last month that the “scale of human suffering is almost incomprehensible.”
About 80% of Yemen’s population of 26mn are in desperate need of aid, and nearly 1.5mn have been driven from their homes in the nearly five-month war.
More than 4,300 people have died in the fighting including 400 children, according to UN figures.
