UN requests access to aid held by Yemen's Houthis

The United Nations aid chief urged Yemen's Houthi rebels to grant access in the coming days to a food storage site in Hodeida containing enough grain to feed millions of starving civilians.

The rebels are refusing to allow UN aid agencies to cross front lines and reach the Red Sea Mills, which are located in a government-controlled area, because of security concerns, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Thursday.

Yemen's government and Houthi rebels agreed during talks in Sweden in December to a ceasefire in Hodeida, a redeployment of forces and access to humanitarian aid, under a deal seen as a major step towards ending the devastating war.

"Access to the mills grows ever more urgent as time passes and the risk of spoilage to the remaining grain increases," said Lowcock in a statement.

"I implore all parties, in particular Ansar Allah affiliated groups, to finalise an agreement and facilitate access to the mills in the coming days,” he said, referring to the rebels with their official party name.

The Houthi movement controls Sanaa, much of Hodeida and other parts of Yemen in a war that pits the rebels against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

The Red Sea Mills silos are believed to contain enough grain to feed 3.7 million people for a month but the granary has remained off-limits to aid organisations for more than four months. 

The latest negotiations on securing access to the warehouses have dragged on and Lowcock deplored that a solution remained "elusive."

Hodeida port is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen's imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions in the Arab world's poorest country.

The United Nations has described Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian emergency, with 10 million people on the brink of famine.

Last month, two silos at the Red Sea mills were hit by mortar shells, sparking a fire that destroyed some of the grain - probably enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people for a month, the United Nations said.

Earlier this month Yemen's government and its allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asked the United Nations Security Council to turn up the pressure on Houthi rebels to uphold a ceasefire deal. 

In a letter sent to the council, the three governments accused the Houthis of violating the ceasefire in the port city of Hodeida 970 times since it came into force on December 18.

They asked the council to "impress upon the Houthis, and their Iranian backers, that they will be held responsible if their continued failure to comply... leads to the collapse of the Stockholm agreement," said the letter seen by AFP.

UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to discuss problems in implementing the Stockholm deal.

"We understand that we need to exercise patience, but it can't be infinite," Gargash told reporters after this meeting.

Gargash raised concerns of a flareup on the ground, triggered by a Houthi provocation.

"We do not want to launch an offensive" in Hodeida, said the minister.  

"What we want is for the UN and the international community to exert influence and to do that work" and create pressure on the Houthis to comply with the ceasefire deal, he said.

The Houthis have accused the Saudi-led coalition of violating its commitments under the Stockholm agreement.

The council met behind closed doors to hear a report from UN envoy Martin Griffiths who has wrapped up a new round of shuttle diplomacy.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Rights group believe the toll to be five times higher.

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