UN warns millions will die in Yemen if Saudi blockade continues

NEW YORK - Millions will die from famine in Yemen if the Saudi-led coalition does not end its blockade and allow access, the U.N.'s emergency aid chief said Wednesday.

Humanitarian access to Yemen was inadequate even before the Saudi alliance cut off all access to sea- and airports in response to a missile fired at Riyadh by Houthi rebels on Saturday.

It is not possible to put a timeline on how long it will be before famine consumes the country if humanitarian relief cannot reach people, Mark Lowcock told reporters after briefing the Security Council in New York.

'It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the year where tens of thousands of people were affected.

'It will not be like the famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011.

'It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims,” Lowcock said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Wednesday morning to call for the resumption of access to humanitarian and commercial flights, Lowcock said.

Seventeen million people suffer from food insecurity in Yemen, and the country was also hit by the world's fastest growing cholera epidemic earlier this year.

The World Food Programme provides sustenance to around 7 million people in the country every other month.

The U.N. currently has 91,000 metric tons of food in the country that is being used to feed the most vulnerable, but 'that can only last so long,” Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said earlier on Wednesday.

The blockade prompted national carrier Yemen Airways to halt all flights from Aden and Seiyun airports - the only two functioning airports in the country.

The move to close all ports further isolates Yemen as the conflict resulted in the closure of Sana'a airport to commercial flights in August 2016.

Yemen has been locked in a devastating power struggle between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-allied Houthis since the rebels took over the capital Sana'a in late 2014.

Saudi Arabia accused Iran of supplying the rebels in Yemen with missiles and carrying out 'direct military aggression,” after the attack on the weekend. Iran rejected the accusations.

The White House condemned Iran for the alleged supply of 'illegal arms such as ballistic missiles” in a statement on Wednesday and said it stands with Saudi Arabia against Iran's 'violations.”

Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the center of Sunni Islam, fears that the rebels will give its predominantly Shiite rival Iran a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula.

Tensions between the two have intensified as Saudi officials have repeatedly said the missile attack 'could amount to a declaration of war” by Iran.