UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and humanitarian partners are rushing to provide life-saving assistance in the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah, after forces backed by the Saudi-led military coalition started an assault on it, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.
Dozens of UN staff are in the city helping to deliver food, water and health services, spokesman Farhan Haq quoted UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande as saying.
Agencies have pre-positioned 63,000 metric tonnes of food, tens of thousands of emergency kits, nutrition supplies, water and fuel. Medical teams have been dispatched and humanitarian service points established, according to the spokesman.
On Wednesday, even as the city was being shelled and bombarded, a UN-contracted vessel off-loaded thousands of metric tonnes of food, he quoted Grande as saying. Two more vessels are making preparations to do the same.
On Thursday, partners are distributing emergency boxes with food and hygiene supplies to people which have been displaced by the fighting south of the city, according to Grande.
Forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, with the backing of the Saudi-led coalition, launched an offensive on Hudaydah on Wednesday in a bid to capture the key port from the hands of Houthi rebels. A prolonged siege of the city will have catastrophic humanitarian consequences as Hudaydah is the single most important point of entry for imports of food, fuel and medicine.
More than 22 million people in the war-torn country are in need of humanitarian assistance and over 70 percent of them live in proximity to Hudaydah and Saleef, another Red Sea port. Many of the estimated 600,000 citizens in Hudaydah are dependent on assistance to survive.
The UN Security Council was holding closed-door consultations on the situation over Hudaydah on Thursday.
