“I beg those responsible to understand the gravity of the country’s situation,” Vatican Radio(Gabriella Ceraso) reported on June 27, 2020, the words of the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Monsignor Paul Hinder, who is alarmed by the “absence of a stable truce in Yemen, at war since 2015, where the population is starving and tired.” He entrusted the country to the prayer of the Virgin Mary, under the title “Queen of Peace.”
“In face of human powerlessness, he entrusted the population to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, “Queen of Peace.” “For my part, I can only invoke the Queen of Peace so that you pray for Yemen and especially for those that have responsibilities to understand the gravity and force of the interior and exterior situation of Yemen. I don’t see how we can come out of it today: there are numerous organizations that try to do all they can for the population itself if what can be done in Aden won’t be possible at Sana’s and vice versa. It’s the tragedy of this country, a “broken” country. Hence, it’s essential to ensure security and stability so that the NGOs that collaborate with the Red Crescent, the only one working actively up to now, are able to continue to be active in all respects.”
Vatican Radio reports dramatic news: “Total economic collapse, is what Yemen faces because of the important cuts in international humanitarian aid, the delay in the transfer of funds, the weakening of the currency and the coronavirus pandemic. Over two million children are malnourished and 6,6000 children, under five, could die of avoidable causes between now and the end of the year, in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. A “disaster without precedent,” according to Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Coordinator of emergency aid of the United Nations (OCHA), who launched an appeal to donors to re-establish the funding. “The price of foodstuffs has increased by 10 to 20% over the last two weeks. Without injections of hard currency, this situation is going to worsen.”
Vatican Radio reported Monsignor Paul Hinder’s reaction. “According to the information available to me, it’s not so much money that is lacking, the neighboring countries and other countries are ready to donate or have already donated billions. The main problem is the lack of facilities and of reliable networks in the country to get aid through.”
Monsignor Hinder deplores the destruction of the country’s sanitation facilities and the insecurity that “renders transport difficult, sometimes impossible.” “The country’s division in at least three parts, of almost different jurisdictions, makes even more difficult effective and coordinated aid. Without a truce between the belligerents, all humanitarian operations will remain at least partially paralyzed.”
