Facing mounting criticism from human rights groups for the disastrous humanitarian consequences of not allowing medical and food aid into northern Yemen, Saudi Arabia has once again offered measures that made no attempt at actually easing the problems.
Saudi officials say that sea and airports in certain “loyal” Yemeni cities, which is to say cities held by pro-Saudi forces, will be reopened to humanitarian aid after a two week closure. Aden had been the only such port accepting shipments recently.
But northern Yemen, where basic medicine like insulin and cancer drugs have wholly run out, and food supplies are dwindling down to their last few weeks before outright mass starvation, will remain closed. This is the area the Saudis are attacking, and the area hit by a cholera outbreak hat killed thousands because medicine was not available.
Saudi officials suggested the lone port in northern Yemen will remain closed indefinitely, saying they want to make sure it’s impossible for weapons to arrive at that port. Saudi officials have previously suggested the Shi’ites surrender the port to them, though since aid shipped to other pro-Saudi ports never reaches the nation’s Shi’ite population, that appears to be no solution at all.