The National Team For Foreign Outreach - Yemen

1. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that Yemen’s humanitarian situation is catastrophic and tragic. Despite the truce announced in April 2022, the situation keeps on deteriorating in all governorates of the Republic of Yemen, due to the impacts and repercussions of the war on Yemen by the War Coalition countries led by the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
2. According to the United Nations (OCHA) estimates, around 4.8 million people in Yemen suffer from at least one disability out of a population of 30 million. The OCHA reports confirm also that the actual number will be more than that in reality, compared to 2014, when the number of citizens with one disability reached three million.
3. Handicap International report shows concern over “the skyrocketed number of people with disabilities” in Yemen and the fragility of their situation, in a country devastated by seven years of war. The report states that this group is the most negatively affected by the conflict, citing the example of “deaf people.” The report notes that there are many disabilities and casualties due to “the extensive use of explosive weapons in strikes, mines and stray bullets in populated areas, leading to large numbers of amputations.” However, such disabilities and damages remain unrecorded within lists of the war victims in Yemen and “virtually forgotten by the international community.”
4. The organization’s report also confirms that the “complete collapse of the health system,” has had a significant impact on the people with disabilities, who are most affected by the war as they “suffer the most since access to hospitals and health services is thus severely limited.” Besides, these centers lack the necessary supplies and medicines due to lack of funding. The organization’s report also noted that the war on Yemen has resulted in the direct killing of nearly 380,000 people, and a large part of the population lives in acute hunger and famine-like conditions.
5. The delay of the United Nations in off-loading and maintaining FSO Safer tanker in the Red Sea, off the Yemeni coast, presages a constant threat of an environmental disaster in the region.

The Continued Suffering of Prisoners

1. In a statement, the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs (NCPA) points out that the alleged initiative of Saudi regime in releasing 163 detainees is not true as the alleged prisoners are not actually members of the Yemeni army forces. The statement clarified that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), after its visit to the detainees, confirmed that the actual number of detainees is 126 detainees only, and not 163 as the Saudi regime had announced.
2. The National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs (NCPA) confirms that it has received from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) lists of detainees who will be released according to the announcement of the Saudi regime. NCPA compared the lists with the database of the prisoners of war, detainees of the Yemeni army and citizens and found out the following:

• All of the detainees on the list are not prisoners of war, except for only five of them and four fishermen who had been kidnapped from the Red Sea. The rest of the names are not prisoners of war and are neither known nor registered on the lists of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs. In fact, the Committee welcomes the release of any Yemeni citizen provided that the release is coordinated with the concerned authorities at the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Human Rights.
• Among the detainees are nine foreigners of African nationalities who have nothing to do with the prisoners of war from the Yemeni army.
• The prisoners’ issue is a humanitarian issue par excellence, which should not be used for political speculations and extortion.
• The Committee strongly objected to the Saudi regime for politicizing the prisoners’ issue and targeting Yemeni workers or detainees of different nationalities and presenting them as prisoners of war.
• The Committee has implemented several unilateral humanitarian initiatives, and released more than 400 prisoners of war who belonged to the Saudi-led War Coalition and their mercenaries without any outbidding or fabrication because the Committee believes that the prisoners’ issue is a humanitarian issue par excellence.
• The Committee disapproved the attitude of the United Nations Envoy to Yemen who welcomed the Saudi regime’s farce of the alleged releasing of the Yemeni army prisoners of war. In fact, the UN Envoy has been adopting blatant double standards.
• Although more than two months have passed since the Prisoner Swap Agreement had been reached under the auspices of the United Nations, only 20% of the lists have been exchanged due to the procrastination of the Saudi-led War Coalition and their mercenaries and their rejection of all the offered solutions and proposals. If the United Nations were serious about implementing the agreement, it should take firm measures against such violations instead of identifying with the violators.