{"id":9529,"date":"2018-06-27T07:37:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T05:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9529"},"modified":"2018-06-27T07:37:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T05:37:49","slug":"hodeidah-what-the-assault-means-for-yemens-civilians-and-the-aid-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/06\/hodeidah-what-the-assault-means-for-yemens-civilians-and-the-aid-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Hodeidah: What the assault means for Yemen\u2019s civilians and the aid effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRIN<\/a>\u00a0– After months of diplomatic wrangling and despite repeated warnings of humanitarian catastrophe, the long-threatened assault on Yemen\u2019s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah is now underway.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni partners \u2013 part of a Saudi Arabian-led coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen since March 2015 \u2013 are now on the outskirts of the Houthi-controlled city of 600,000.<\/p>\n

No one can be sure how the battle will play out, but everyone agrees that in a country that has been on the brink of famine for years, the offensive will make life for 27 million Yemenis even worse. However, this sort of statement (found in just about every aid agency press release and headline) doesn\u2019t mean much to those on the ground or give a picture of what\u2019s really at stake.<\/p>\n

Hodeidah is a port, a city, and a province, and all these things matter. Here\u2019s a briefing with a bit more detail about each to explain what is keeping humanitarians up at night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The province: Fleeing into harm\u2019s way<\/h3>\n

It hasn\u2019t made the headlines, but civilians have actually been on the run in Hodeidah province since November, when\u00a0coalition-allied forces began<\/a>\u00a0slowly making their way up Yemen\u2019s western coast.<\/p>\n

Up-to-date displacement numbers aren\u2019t available for all of Yemen, but the UN figures that do exist are telling. Since December, more than 112,000 people have fled to the country\u2019s southern provinces, including Aden, and 62 percent of them escaped Hodeidah province.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t all been one-way traffic. Aid workers report that many civilians have also taken flight inside Hodeidah province, fleeing north towards the city and exhausting their resources along the way just to get there.<\/p>\n

Isma\u2019eel al-Sharabi, director of the Hodeidah-based Ash’ari Association for Social Charity,\u00a0<\/em>told IRIN that large numbers of people had fled into the city, despite the imminent assault. Many are staying with relatives, while others have taken shelter in schools and other public buildings.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Abdi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, says people fleeing will need shelter, clean water, and other supplies, placing deeper strains on already stretched host communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course people will run from their current homes to other places where they feel safe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if they move to a neighbourhood in large numbers, or to another governorate in large numbers, [displaced people] put pressure on the existing structures \u2013 meaning water and health facilities will not be enough for the original inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0UN bid in April to evacuate<\/a>\u00a0some civilians from southern Hodeidah province failed as locals were reluctant to leave their livelihoods and homes behind.<\/p>\n

A recent UN\u00a0operational update<\/a>\u00a0says \u201cthe humanitarian community is preparing for possible mass displacement and increased humanitarian needs, if the conflict reaches the city\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lise Grande, the UN\u2019s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told IRIN the UN has positioned supplies around the province but is not planning on setting up camps for displaced people.<\/p>\n

Displacement is hardly the only concern for those in the region, however. Houthi forces have\u00a0reportedly left mines<\/a>in southern parts of the province, and, according to several aid workers, coalition airstrikes have destroyed some of the roads that humanitarians use to access communities in need.<\/p>\n

The city: \u201cTrapped in the line of fire\u201d<\/h3>\n

As fighting intensifies on the outskirts of Hodeidah, some civilians are\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0already attempting to flee. But not everyone will be able to get out of harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these instances, the people who remain behind are the elderly, children, and disabled people,\u201d said the NRC\u2019s Abdi. \u201cIt is harder for them to move, especially if they don\u2019t have means or the money to enable them to move from one area or another. There is a danger that some people might not want to move, and they could be trapped in the line of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s population has already suffered three years of war. As in most of Yemen, civil servants have largely gone unpaid for almost two years. Salahuddin al-Maswari, project coordinator for the Yemeni All Girls Foundation for Development in Hodeidah, says most other residents work as day labourers or in markets and spend everything they have on food.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here in Hodeidah for one year now, and I\u2019ve seen so many heartbreaking scenes,\u201d al-Maswari said. \u201cFamilies can barely feed their older children, and sometimes they go without food for days.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t just food that civilians need; aid agencies say water shortages are also a major concern.<\/p>\n

Most of the people in Hodeidah city already rely on aid agencies to bring them safe water by truck, but UNICEF spokesman Bismarck Swangin worries this may not be possible if fighting escalates.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring clashes, the public water corporation operators will not be able to report to their stations and operate the system,\u201d Swangin told IRIN. \u201cIt will be impossible for water trucks to move around within the city.\u201d This \u201cincreases the risks of people having no access to water and sanitation services, which will cause health and environmental risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yemen has already seen how quickly water-borne disease can spread without proper sanitation and clean water: a\u00a0cholera outbreak,<\/a>\u00a0now largely under control, has killed 2,300 people and infected more than 1.1 million since April 2017.<\/p>\n

The port: The poor will starve first<\/h3>\n

While civilians in Hodeidah city and province are in clear danger, the port is also a key concern. In a country like Yemen that imports almost all its food and most of its fuel, seaports are key to civilian survival.<\/p>\n

Hodeidah is essential for humanitarian and\u00a0commercial<\/a>\u00a0imports, both because of its capacity to store and mill grain, and because of its proximity to the northern Houthi-controlled parts of the country, where some two thirds of the population live.<\/p>\n

Accurate statistics in Yemen are hard to come by, but the USAID-funded\u00a0Famine Early Warning Systems Network<\/a>(FEWS NET) estimates that Hodeidah and the nearby smaller port of Saleef bring in approximately 70 percent of the country\u2019s monthly food imports, and 40 to 50 percent of its fuel.<\/p>\n

If the port is damaged or otherwise cut off by fighting, Yemenis across the country are in trouble, not so much because food will be unavailable (although that is not out of the question), but because it may become so expensive that most people won\u2019t be able to buy it.<\/p>\n

Hodeidah was bombed in August 2015, and has been operating at reduced capacity ever since. Two much-trumpeted USAID-funded mobile cranes arrived at the port at the start of this year, but, according to Suze van Meegen, protection and advocacy advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Yemen, they haven\u2019t made much of a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damaged cranes were giant, permanently-installed pieces of machinery, capable of offloading up to 30 containers each per hour; their substitutes are extendable apparatus attached to the sort of tiny, portable trucks one might expect to see at a suburban construction site,\u201d van Meegen told IRIN.<\/p>\n

There are other ports in Yemen \u2013 namely government-controlled Aden \u2013 and goods also come in through official border crossings with Saudi Arabia and Oman, not to mention various smuggling routes. But bringing goods from Aden or the land borders means an increase in transport costs and taxes \u2013 both at the port and at the entrance to the Houthi-controlled north, plus at unofficial checkpoints along the way. These costs would invariably\u00a0be passed down to consumers, and there is some precedent for this:\u00a0prices shot up<\/a>\u00a0almost immediately when the coalition shuttered Hodeidah and Saleef last November.<\/p>\n

The NRC\u2019s Abdi said \u201cthe whole of northern Yemen will feel the pinch if the port is closed or disrupted\u201d, but pointed out that people across the country who\u2019ve exhausted their resources will also suffer. Scott Paul, head of humanitarian advocacy at UK-based charity Oxfam, says those most impacted will be, to put it bluntly, \u201ceverybody that is already poor\u201d. In Yemen, that\u2019s millions of people.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/h3>\n

The UN Security Council was to hold a last-minute emergency meeting on the offensive, and UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said he was negotiating to keep the port open, but coalition forces appeared set on continuing their march through Hodeidah.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Wednesday<\/a>, Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced a \u201cfive-point plan\u201d to \u201csafeguard and intensify the flow of humanitarian aid into the port of Hodeidah.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, they said they planned to open shipping lanes from Hodeidah to Jazan in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, and would be distributing food, medical supplies, staff, and economic support on the ground, as well as ensuring continued electricity supply.<\/p>\n

The coalition has\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it will attempt to avoid damage to the port, and hopes to keep it running even if it finds it mined by the Houthi rebels.<\/p>\n

But heavy airstrikes have been reported south of Hodeidah city, and aid agencies say they are already finding it increasingly difficult to do their jobs. The NRC said its programmes in Hodeidah and nearby Hajjah province had been \u201cseverely disrupted by fighting\u201d, but they have not evacuated staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been stockpiling supplies wherever possible and taking additional steps to protect what we have so we can deliver it to people as needed, but as the offensive takes hold of more highly-populated areas\u00a0we can expect to be completely overwhelmed by the scale of need,\u201d the NRC\u2019s van Meegen said.<\/p>\n

Paul of Oxfam said that in addition to continuing attempts to stave off a disruption at the port, the organisation would be \u201csupplementing markets as much as we can, with cash when possible and with food and fuel when necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s Grande emphasised that \u201cthe UN is in Hodeidah,\u201d with local Yemeni staff working to assist those in need. She said a World Food Programme vessel was offloading food, and that the UN was delivering health, water, and sanitation programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to leave Hodeidah,\u201d she insisted. \u201cToo many lives are at stake.”<\/p>\n

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ali Kalfood in Yemen and Samuel Oakford at the United Nations in New York)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni partners \u2013 part of a Saudi Arabian-led coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen since March 2015 \u2013 are now on the outskirts of the Houthi-controlled city of 600,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,5,85,43,11,88,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor-selection","category-geography","category-human-rights","category-human-rights-online-library","category-issues","category-slider","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9532,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions\/9532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}