UN ‘extremely concerned’ over potential attack on Yemen’s Hudaydah

The United Nations has warned against a possible military action against Yemen’s Houthi-controlled port city of Hudaydah, where over 70 percent of the nation’s food imports and relief aid is delivered.

During a Friday panel discussion on Yemeni crisis at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he was “extremely concerned” over a potential military operation on the vital Saudi port.

“We as the United Nations are advocating that no military operations should be undertaken in Hudaydah,” Ahmed said.
The warning comes days after the Saudi-led coalition, which has been engaged in a deadly military campaign against Yemen over the past two years, threatened to attack Yemen’s western port city.

Hudaydah is part of a broad battlefront where Saudi-backed forces are fighting the Yemeni army and its Houthi allies, which control most of northern and western Yemen.

Earlier this month, the World Food Program warned that the provinces of Ta’izz and Hudaydah risked slipping into famine if they did not receive more aid. The International Rescue Committee has said any attack targeting the port would disrupt port facilities and “have a catastrophic impact on the people of Yemen.”