Relief agencies have called for targeted sanctions against Yemen's warring parties and for international pressure to keep vital humanitarian assistance flowing, as diplomats meet Wednesday on the country's crisis in Paris. The meeting was downgraded after last week's Saudi-led coalition attack on Yemen's main port of Hodeida.
Co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, the Paris conference was to have been at a ministerial level, with French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a keynote speech. But those plans were scrapped following the Hodeida attack. Now the meeting is taking place among international experts, behind closed doors.
Aid agencies are expressing concern about the risk of a new humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, which they say may affect hundreds of thousands of people.
"We have documented at Amnesty that over the past six months, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has continued to impose restrictions on the entry of essential goods into the conflict towards Yemen," said Rasha Mouawieh, a Yemen Researcher at Amnesty International. "But we have also documented from the other side the Houthi de-facto authorities have excessively delayed the delivery of humanitarian assistance inside Yemen."
France and the United States are among the nations backing the Saudi coalition in the conflict. The French government faces pressure over its arms sales to both Saudi Arabia and coalition partner the United Arab Emirates. The United Nations and other groups say the coalition has targeted civilians, which it denies.
Mouawieh says Amnesty and other humanitarian groups want the international community to impose targeted sanctions on warring parties who they say have violated international law.
"We are calling on France, as an ally to Saudi Arabia and as a weapons-selling country to pressure Saudi Arabia to respect (humanitarian) law and ensure assistance is delivered to the country," said Mouawieh.
Yemen's three-year-old war has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. Many face extreme hunger. Humanitarian groups fear the situation could worsen if the Hodeidah port fighting cuts off the flow of aid.
