Letter on behalf of the Humanitarian Coordinator, Johannes van der Klaauw

Received on 29 May 2015, in response to the letter: Scholars and Academics of Southern Arabia (Aden)

Dear Dr AbdulNasser Ahmed Alwali and Ms. Fetema Saeed Alimodi
Thank you for your letter on behalf of the Scholars and Academics from Southern Arabia (Aden) dated 21 May 2015. As you rightly point out, the humanitarian situation in Yemen, including the southern governorates such as Aden, Lahj, Abyan and Al Dhale'e, is of grave concern. People have limited access to basic services, including healthcare, water and sanitation, education and protection. There is a widespread lack of fuel and electricity, people's livelihoods have collapsed and many have fled the violence and and now face an uncertain future.
The United Nations and its partners are mobilizing all efforts and available resources to scale up the humanitarian response in line with established humanitarian principles, including the impartiality of assistance; in other words, providing relief on the basis of need alone without discrimination. Despite complex challenges related to the scale of needs and the difficult operational security environment, we are working closely with parties to the conflict to facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of relief supplies and personnel to people in need. We are also consistently calling on the parties to the conflict to comply with International Humanitarian Law obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
In Yemen, the United Nations is working closely with a number of implementing partners and is seeking to provide assistance to those in need in the whole of Yemen. Whilst coordinating closely with the authorities across the country, I can assure you that assistance is based on humanitarian needs identified by the United Nations throughout the country in an impartial manner, and entrusted to implementing partners identified on the basis of their expertise and qualifications as well as their abidance with established humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and operational independence.
My team and I are available to further discuss any further concerns you may have regarding the humanitarian response in Yemen.
Yours sincerely,
Johannes Van der Klaauw