Attacks since November on cargo ships in the key Red Sea trade route by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen will deepen the impoverished country's "dire" humanitarian situation, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned on Monday.
"The escalation of the Red Sea crisis is poised to exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation in #Yemen - @FAO warns," the UN agency wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“We should facilitate an uninterrupted flow of commercial and essential humanitarian food supplies," FAO's Yemen representative, Hussein Gadain underlined in the tweet.
The Houthi leadership claims their missile and drone attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea region are to avenge Israel's war in Gaza - now in its sixth month - in which over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and the flattened coastal enclave's population has been brought to the the brink of famine.
The European Union last month launch its Aspides mission in the Red Sea region to protect merchant ships and the US and UK have made repeated strikes against Houthi drones and sites linked to Houthi activity since February.
