DJIBOUTI (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he hopes to secure a pause in Yemen’s war as he prepared for talks in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, citing increased shortages of food, fuel and medicine that are adding to a crisis that already has neighboring countries bracing for a mass exodus of refugees.
At a news conference in Djibouti, a nearby African nation that already has taken in several thousand people, Kerry said the United States was deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian conditions in Yemen. He was speaking just a boat trip away from the scene of the fighting, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels were pressing on with ground offensives and Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries were continuing a month-and-a-half long bombing campaign.
Trapped in the middle are Yemeni civilians. Aid groups say they’re struggling to reach millions of people in need in what was already the Arabian Peninsula’s most impoverished state. With no end to the violence in sight, agencies are doing contingency planning for a prolonged conflict that prompts well over 100,000 Yemenis fleeing for abroad.
“The situation is getting more dire by the day,” Kerry told reporters.
Kerry credited the Saudis with trying to ease access for aid organizations and blamed the Houthis for the continued violence.