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As UN officials continue to warn about Yemen's famine, the first shipment in three weeks carrying food aid arrived at the rebel-controlled Red Sea port of Saleef in western Yemen – located nearly 70 kilometers north of the key port of Hodeida – a United Nations official stated, according to AFP.
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The vessel carried nearly 25,000 tons of wheat, which will be offloaded early on Monday, Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) for the Middle East and North Africa region, said.
Etefa added, "strong winds" were delaying the offloading process by one day.
The region heavily depends on imported grains.
Hodeida port, which is the main port that receives UN-supervised deliveries of food and medicine, was facing a blockade earlier this month when a Saudi-led coalition – fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels – imposed a blockade on Yemeni land and sea ports in response to a missile fired by the Houthis.
On Friday, the UN humanitarian affairs office was given clearance to resume flights into Sanaa by the coalition, but the relief shipments to Hodeida port remain blocked.
"The ship in Hodeida is for traders. The one in Saleef is for WFP," the deputy head of Hodeida port, Yahya Sharafeddine, told AFP, confirming that a "commercial" vessel had docked on the port.
A UN plane carrying desperately needed vaccines landed in the rebel-held Yemeni capital on Saturday after coalition forces partly lifted the blockade, following warnings that thousands of people could die.
Amid the crippling blockade, nearly 11 million children in the war-torn country are in desperate need of aid, according to the UN Advocacy groups in the region which warned that the humanitarian aids received can only cover a small amount of the which is needed.
Nearly 8,600 people have been killed and 2,000 have died owing to the devastating war.
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