UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The humanitarian situation in Yemen remains fragile despite improvements in many aspects in the war-torn country over the past year, said a senior UN official on Thursday.
Yemen is still a very dangerous place although civilian casualties have dropped since the government and the Houthi rebels reached the Stockholm Agreement in December 2018, said Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the Coordination Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Civilian casualties in 2019 were about 35 percent lower than the previous year, and civilian fatalities were down by almost half, Rajasingham told the Security Council via a video link from Geneva.
In recent weeks, however, hostilities flare again along several front lines, he noted. "Although clashes have been mostly contained, we continue to see mass-casualty incidents across the country."
On Dec. 25, a market in Saada in the northwest was attacked for the third time in a month, killing at least eight civilians. Eighty-nine civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks at this same market since November 2019, he said.
"Every day, we receive reports of civilians killed or injured when shells land on their homes, snipers fire on their communities, or landmines or other munitions explode. These smaller-scale incidents occur in a constant stream and receive less attention than they should."
Critical civilian infrastructure is not spared either. On Dec. 26, mortars again struck the Red Sea Mills in Hodeidah, forcing the World Food Programme to temporarily suspend milling, he said.
"It is unacceptable that civilians should so disproportionately bear the brunt of this conflict. At all times, the parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure."
The best way to end such harm, he said, is to build on the current de-escalation measures and to move as quickly as possible to a nationwide cease-fire.
Yemen has been in civil war for almost five years, pitting Houthi rebels against government forces. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition force defending the internationally recognized Yemeni government against Houthi rebels allegedly supported by Iran.
