The coalition led by Saudi Arabia for nine months does not allow the UN to deliver cranes to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah to unload ships with humanitarian aid and commercial cargo.

This was stated on Thursday by the official representative of the Secretary General of the World Organization Stefan Dujarrik.

According to him, the United Nations World Food Program received funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to purchase four mobile cranes produced by the United Arab Emirates.According to Foreign Policy magazine, the deal was worth $ 3.8 million. Cranes were supposed to be installed in Hodeida to increase the unloading capacity of the port, which receives humanitarian aid, but the ship that delivered them was forced to return to Dubai.

“The coalition did not allow to bring cranes to Hodeida in January and they are in Dubai at the manufacturer’s warehouse. We, of course, would like these cranes to be delivered and installed [in the port], “said Dujarrik. He did not specify how the coalition explains its decision on the non-admission of cranes. “I think this is a question for those who do not allow them to be delivered,” the representative of the secretary general said.

Since August 2014 in Yemen, the confrontation between government forces and insurgent hussites has continued. In the most active phase, it passed with the invasion in March 2015 of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia.The UN is regularly alarmed about a catastrophe hanging over the country: according to recent estimates, about 20 million Yemenis – about 70% of the country’s population – need humanitarian assistance, and the number of internally displaced persons exceeds 3 million people. 7 million people in Yemen are on the verge of starvation, and 2 million children suffer from acute nutritional deficiencies.