Saudis blocking fuel to UN aid planes in Yemen

 The United Nations has said that Saudi Arabia is blocking jet fuel delivery to planes trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen’s capital city Sana’a.

 The United Nations has said that Saudi Arabia is blocking jet fuel delivery to planes trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen’s capital city Sana’a.

According to the UN’s country director of the UN Development Program, Auke Lootsma, on Tuesday, the global body operates two aid flights into Sana’a from Amman and Djibouti, which due to lack of fuel get stranded in Yemeni capital.

“We have difficulties obtaining permission from the coalition and from the government of Yemen to transport this jet fuel to Sana’a to facilitate these flights,” he said.

The fuel must arrive in Sana’a via the port city of Aden which is in control of Riyadh. The Saudis have repeatedly been accused of blocking aid to Yemen.

Moreover, the international charity Save the Children said in a Wednesday statement that more than one million children live in the areas of Yemen that have been affected by cholera.

The statement added that the malnourished children had weak immune systems and “at least three times more likely to die” in case of cholera.

Since March 2015 the Saudi-led coalition has been carrying airstrikes against Yemeni people, the hostilities have triggered the humanitarian crisis in the country.