UN relief ship docks in Aden

Agence France Presse

ADEN: A UN aid ship docked in Yemen’s devastated port city of Aden Tuesday bringing desperately needed relief supplies after four months of fierce fighting between rebels and loyalist fighters.
The humanitarian aid arrived as forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi pressed on with operations to tighten their control over the southern city.
“This is the first boat carrying the UN flag to dock in Aden since the war began” in late March, provincial Gov. Nayef Al-Bakri told reporters at the port before a second vessel sent by the UAE also docked.
Transport Minister Badr Basalmeh said the two consignments amounted to 7,000 tons of food and pharmaceutical aid.
The UN’s World Food Program had tried repeatedly in past weeks to deliver aid to the port city but failed because of security concerns.
Vessels sent by the UAE managed to reach Aden in May but not under the UN flag.
A humanitarian cease-fire declared by the UN earlier this month failed to take hold. The WFP had described the truce as the “final hope” to deliver desperately needed aid.
The WFP had delivered aid ahead of the truce to the rebel-controlled Hodeida port in western Yemen, but the insurgents did not allow an aid convoy to travel to Aden.
The UN had warned then that the impoverished country was just “one step away from famine.”
More than 21.1 million people — over 80 percent of Yemen’s population — need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages.
On Tuesday, the UAE said without elaborating than an officer in its armed forces was killed in coalition operations, the third Emirati killed in the conflict.