UNITED NATIONS -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon warned on Monday that "Yemen's very existence hangs in the balance" as the fighting in the country has killed more than 2,600 people since March this year, half of them civilians.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva on the opening of consultations on the current situation in Yemen, the UN chief said that in Yemen's case, the ticking clock is not a timepiece, it is a time bomb, asserting that the region cannot sustain another open wound like Syria and Libya.
"We must find a way to end the suffering and begin the long road to peace," he said, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric at a news briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.
Ban said that there was reason for hope as he delineated his call for action involving a renewed humanitarian pause to commence in time for the holy month of Ramadan; the agreement for local ceasefires as a pathway towards a lasting nationwide ceasefire; and a call for all Yemeni stakeholders to resume "a peaceful and orderly political transition."
"Once again, Yemen faces a hard road," the secretary-general said. "But I hope that this week will mark the beginning of the end of fighting -- and the start of a new and better future the people of Yemen so desperately deserve."
Before leaving Geneva, the secretary-general said "The parties have a responsibility to end the fighting and begin a real process of peace and reconciliation."
The spokesman said "The secretary-general is on his way back to New York from Geneva, where he met with representatives of the government of Yemen today," adding that the UN chief had intended to have a joint meeting with the Yemeni parties on Monday, but logistical issues made this impossible.
The ongoing hostilities in Yemen have only deepened its already existent humanitarian crisis, plunging the Gulf country's civilians even further into despair.
Already the poorest nation in the Gulf region prior to the fighting, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) recently stressed that more than 15 million Yemenis do not have access to basic healthcare, with 53 health facilities closed and malnutrition increasing. Eighty percent of the country's population is currently in need of critical humanitarian aid. Enditem
