Press Briefing: Julien Harneis, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Yemen

Well, good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. We're very pleased to be joined by Julien Harnais, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. And Julien, without further ado, I give you the floor. I think everybody knows what you will be talking about today.

Thank you.

Okay, good afternoon. Thank you for making the time. My name is Julian Hannes. I'm the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, and I'm today speaking to you from Sana'a. I wanted to talk about generally the humanitarian situation in Yemen and the consequences of the recent airstrikes yesterday in Aden, as well as in the airport where I was present. So in Yemen, we have, as a result of the 10-year conflict, 18 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. That's about half the population. Next year, as a result of worsening economic conditions, Not so much active fighting, but because of the worsening economy. We expect that number to increase to 19 million. That means that Yemen, in absolute terms, is the second-highest case number— caseload of children, malnourished children. It also means that Yemen is the second-highest caseload of people who are not able to reach health services. This is absolute numbers, not percentages. Which is the 3rd highest number of food insecure people in the world. So we are looking at a massive humanitarian situation. We expect that number to increase to 19 million next year, 2025. This could get much worse because that is based upon scenarios and our understanding of the situation as it was a couple of months ago. As we look at the possibility of further violence between Ansar Allah in the north of the country and Israel, there could be further impact on civilian infrastructure, harbor, airports, and roads, which would lead to immense suffering of the Yemeni population. The airstrikes on the harbor are particularly concerning. Yemen imports approximately 80% of its foodstuffs So, if Hodeidah harbor is disabled, that means that the whole of the population of northern Yemen, which is about 65 to 70% of the population, will be in increased humanitarian need. Yesterday, I was at the airport when the airstrikes hit— well, destroyed the air traffic control killed the staff who were working there and injured my UNHCR crew member colleague who was there with the flight. And the airstrikes landed approximately 300 meters away from where Director-General Tedros was and myself. There was one airstrike approximately 300 meters to the south of us and about another airstrike about 300 meters to the north of us. What was most frightening about that airstrike wasn't the effect on us, is that the airstrikes took place as a civilian airliner from Yemen carrying hundreds of Yemenis was about to land. And in fact, the— that airliner from Yemen was landing, taxiing in when the air traffic control was destroyed. Fortunately, that plane was able to land safely and the passengers were able to disembark, but it could have been far, far worse. And so the airport of Sinai is a civilian infrastructure. It is the location whereby all of the international humanitarian aid workers who work in the north of the country come in and leave by. So if that airport is disabled, it will paralyze the humanitarian operations. It's also the airport by which thousands of Yemenis who are unable to get decent healthcare, advanced healthcare in the country, leave to go either to Jordan or to Cairo, eventually to Mumbai, to get advanced healthcare. So it is an absolutely vital humanitarian location. It is essential that all parties to the conflict observe scrupulously international humanitarian law throughout these exchanges. So that's the kind of very quick overview, and I'm very happy to take any questions that you might have. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Edie, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Julian. On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing. My name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. A bunch of follow-ups to what you've said. First, on the humanitarian front, you said that Yemen is the second highest for malnourished children and for caseloads and the 3rd highest for food insecurity. Can you tell us who was— who's the highest and number 1 and 2 for food insecurity, just so we don't have to go and dig up those figures? And then I have some follow-up questions about What happened at the airport yesterday?

Thank you, Edith. And I'm afraid I'm going to pass on your question because I, I'm myopically focused on Yemen.

Okay.

And I don't want to steer you wrong with my answers about other countries.

Okay. Um, at the airport, at the airport We actually were never told how many people were in this UN delegation. I assume that— were you traveling with Dr. Tedros and did you participate in all of the meetings that he had? And we guessed that you were in some sort of a VIP room waiting to depart. Could you give us some more details on, on what exactly happened? Was there any warning? And I'll leave it at that for now.

Okay, thank you, Edith. So we were a party of approximately 20 UN personnel in, in 5 vehicles. I'm based in Yemen and had previously received Director-General Tedros some 2 days before. He'd previously been in Aden and had traveled up to Sana'a. We were— he was here to engage with leaders of Ansar Allah, or the de facto authorities here in Sana'a, in order to negotiate the release of, or to contribute to the negotiation and the release of UN staff. There were approximately 50 people detained from the United Nations, NGOs, and civil society last June by the authorities in Sana'a, and more persons from outside, from another 50 or so taken from government services. And we have been engaged in a long-running negotiation in order to obtain the release of our colleagues. And Director-General Tedros had visited Aden to meet with the government of Yemen there, and then had traveled up to Sana'a to discuss with the authorities how to obtain the release of our colleagues. And I was with the Director-General throughout those discussions. We were in the— in a VIP room, which is next to the main terminal. As you can imagine, Sana'a Airport is a— Sana'a International Airport is a very— is a relatively small building compared to most international airports. And the airstrikes were approximately 16:43, so at about quarter to 5 p.m. Okay. And not only obviously did we have zero indication of any potential airstrikes, but we cannot remember the last time there were airstrikes in Sana'a during daylight hours. And the Saudi coalition has paused their military operations some 2 years ago. But during the period they're operating, they would tend to bomb at night. The US and UK coalition, which has been retaliating or responding to Ansar Allah strikes and missiles in the Red Sea, have tended to bomb at after mid— after 11 p.m. at night to early mornings. So An airstrike on a civilian location in the middle of the day, just before an Airbus A320 was about to land, and as a UN party was there, was completely unexpected.

Just a quick follow-up, which I'm sure we all want to know. So what happened when, when the airstrike took place? What, what did you all do? Did people fall, go to fall on the, you know, go to the ground, go under furniture?

Well, the, uh, the, the UN Department of Security, um, Safety and Security, um, UNDSS, um, responded very professionally. They moved the colleagues out of the VIP building into 5 armored vehicles that were waiting for the delegation. And we, we waited in the armored vehicles for approximately 40 minutes so that we could ascertain what has been— what was the situation, and so that we could also look after the injured crew member. One of the UNHAS crew members was hit in the lower leg with an open— by shrapnel, who lost a lot of blood. I saw the blood on the tarmac this morning as we said goodbye to Tedros. He lost a lot of blood and had to be evacuated to a hospital inside Sana'a. So We stayed to make sure that the crew were okay and evacuate them to the center of Sana'a and to make sure it was safe for us to move. And thank you for the questions, Edith.

Could I do just one quick follow-up? Did the whole team stay in Sana'a at a hotel or at the UN compound? overnight before you were able— like, the airport was reopened today and you were able to leave?

So the, um, we moved the whole party, including the crew, do not normally stay in Sana'a. We moved to a UN compound. And, um, uh, in order— before we could fly, obviously we needed to check the damage to the runway. And there's obviously no air traffic control anymore, so that means only possibility to fly during daylight hours. So we needed to see the condition of the plane and the condition of the, of the tarmac and make sure the crew was all right. And to be— and also to see how the operation on the UNHAS crew member went. He went for 4 hours of surgery, and fortunately we've been able to move him out with Director General Cedros. this afternoon.

Hi, this is Xu Deji with China Central Television. A follow-up, uh, you just said that Dr. Tedros was there engaging with Ansarullah to talk about the, the, the staff that being kept by, by Houthis. Do you have any more updates on that? And secondly, you also mentioned the dire situation, the dire humanitarian situation, given the fact that the harbor of Hodeida is key to the humanitarian foods, as well as the airport, which is for international staffers. So how would the airstrikes from Israel directly affect your operation there? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much for the question. So on the detention, As I noted before, some 100 persons were detained in June of this year, and of which 13 of them are UN personnel. And then a further 4 UN personnel were detained in 2021 and 2023. In total, 17 persons have been detained, approximately 6 weeks ago, one person, one UN personnel was released and 2 NGO persons were also released. The— all of our persons, all of the UN colleagues who have been detained have been working on humanitarian and aid projects throughout this period, and they are covered by UN privileges and immunities, and they should not be detained. And we have repeatedly called upon the authorities in Sana'a for their release. We have seen over the last weeks some slight improvements, but one person have been able to speak with their families at least one occasion. And as I noted, one UN personnel and 2 NGOs were released some 6 weeks ago. The discussions that myself and Director-General Tedros engaged in here were to seek a way forward so that all UN personnel and non-UN personnel, NGOs and civil society, could be released. In our discussions with various senior officials in Sana'a, they gave us commitments That we hope will lead to the eventual release of our colleagues. And in terms of the— I'll sort of stop there and then I'll move on to the discussion about the harbor.

So the—

as we noted, 80% of UN's food comes through Hodeidah Harbor for the— sorry, 80% of Yemen's food requirements for the north comes through Hodeida Harbor. And I would say close to 90%, 95% of the medical supplies. So the harbor is absolutely vital. If that harbor is decapacitated, and there have been numerous airstrikes on that harbor, there was airstrikes twice yesterday, Some days ago, the tugs which are used to bring in the big ships, 2 tugs were destroyed. And there have been previous airstrikes in and around the harbor over the last months. And the— if that harbor does not operate, then we will see a dramatic and sudden decrease in the humanitarian situation in Yemen. The harbor is a civilian location, and the Security Council has established 2 missions to— in order to assure that. One is the UNMAHA, which was set up as a result of the Stockholm Agreement, and their purpose is to ensure that the harbor is used only for civilian purposes. The other UN mission is UNVIM, So the United Nations Verification Inspection Mechanism, which is not based in Yemen but is actually based in Djibouti. They are responsible for ensuring that all containers and products that are taken into Hodeida harbor are consistent with Security Council resolutions. So there's 2 UN missions whose only job is to ensure that Hodeida remains only of use for civilian Civilian reasons. So it's a civilian facility, there is no doubt about that. And, and with the UN works to ensure that, and any damage to it will lead to massive suffering for Yemenis. Thank you.

But you didn't really answer my question, how this round of airstrikes affected your operation there. Has it been delayed or paused or suspended?

So the, the airstrikes of some days ago, which destroyed the 2 tugs, was estimated to reduce the harbor capacity by 50%. Now, we don't know how long that reduction in capacity will be, and we have yet to have done a thorough analysis of what the impact of yesterday's airstrikes were, because those airstrikes took place at 18:50. So we're still—

Okay.

We're still collecting information and trying to understand that.

Thank you. Gabriel and then Javier.

Uh, thank you, Julian. This is Gabriel Elizondo from Al Jazeera English. I also have a few follow-ups on the airport incident, and I'll ask them one at a time, hopefully to make it a little easier. I just want to clarify, you did say there were 2 strikes and one hit 300 meters south of where your team was, and One hit 300 meters north of where your team was at the airport. Can you just confirm that is what you said?

Yeah, that's, that's my understanding. At the time, we weren't measuring the precise distance.

No problem. No, I understand. No, I just want to make sure that, that, that was correct, at least. And how many in that, in that room that you folks were at, at the airport, how many UN personnel were in that room? Roughly?

Uh, yeah, it was— well, you know, it was approximately 15 UN personnel in the room and 5 UN personnel, um, outside of the— outside of the building.

Okay. And how many—

15 inside, 5 outside, approximately.

Sure, fine, approximately. And how, uh, uh, Dr. Tedros and his team were able to get to Amman Um, how did he get out of the country?

Um, so, well, obviously we, as an— we moved out of the VIP lounge, um, uh, waited 40 minutes, and then after that evacuated— well, moved back rather to the UN compound where we overnighted. And then over, over the evening, we worked out how we could, um, if we would be— how we could move the plane out. Uh, the UNHAS plane had already landed, was, um, had refueled, and the plane was, um— the crew, uh, after they had medically evacuated, casualty evacuated their colleague, secured the plane, um, so that it would be possible to, to use This morning, or today, the next day. Um, and this morning the crew came in, um, went in to verify the condition of the plane, found that it was in, um, that it had not been damaged, and therefore we were able to use that plane to move Director General Tedros and his delegation.

But the air traffic control tower is still completely non-operational, correct?

Yeah, that's correct. I mean, on— and has pilots And, you know, I can't say for other pilots, but certainly ANHAS pilots during daylight hours are able to take off without, without air traffic control.

Thank you. And my last question is, and I know you're dealing with a lot of very important humanitarian issues in Yemen, so I'm sorry to ask you these detailed questions about one incident, but I just wanted to get clarification because you were there. So thank you. Just my last follow-up is, Clearly, this was a close call that was unexpected. There were no warnings. My question is, when someone as high level as Dr. Tedros is in Yemen, do you normally, or would your office or someone normally inform Israel that he was there because Israel is part of this, a party to this conflict, or is that not normal protocol?

It is not— we have a protocol for all humanitarian workers to inform various parties to the conflict. I won't go into the details precisely which parties to the conflict we inform, but I think the bigger issue is parties to the conflict have an obligation to ensure that they are not striking a civilian target and not striking civilians. The obligation is on them, not on us. We don't need to prove we're civilians. They need to prove that they are hitting a military target. Sana'a Airport has not been a military target since 2016. I was, I was in Yemen at the beginning of the conflict, and I remember the day when all of the military capacities were destroyed at Sana'a Airport. And that was, that was 4 years, 9 years ago. And Sana'a Airport has subsequently been repeatedly bombed over the, you know, for many years. So it's a civilian location. It is used by the United Nations. It's used by the International Committee for the Red Cross. It is used for civilian flights. That is its purpose. And so all parties to the conflict have an obligation to respect the civilian nature of that facility and to observe international humanitarian law. The responsibility is on them. Thank you.

Javier?

Yes, my name is Javier Otafe from the EFE Spanish news service. A follow-up on the 100 people still detained. We understand there are no formal charges, right? But what are they accused of, and are all of them accused of the same thing, or there are different cases?

Thank you.

The, um, so the, um, the— as you, uh, thank you, Xavier. As you correctly noted Of those persons who were detained in June, we have not been informed of any formal charges, and there has not been— we're not aware of any statements on the specific individuals. The detainees from 2021 and 2023, And the authorities here broadcast various accusations against them and so-called, so-called confessions, and where they were accused of espionage, a charge which the United Nations does not, does not recognize.

Um, let me— you have another one, then I'll go to Efraim, then Edie, and then we will wrap up to let— to allow Julien to go back to his activities.

Can you please provide any more details?

I mean, espionage, you know, I mean, the thing is we do— we don't believe— we don't recognize it, so we don't really go into the— we're not going to be repeating charges that we do not adhere to. And if you wish to dig into that, that those allegations are on the internet, and I'm sure you would be able to find them relatively easily. But as I, you know, as I said at the beginning, all of our staff in the United Nations, we're here for Yemenis. And, you know, we've been here for decades And we've been here since the '60s. Our only purpose is humanitarian assistance and, where possible, the development of the country. And our colleagues have risked their lives. We've had colleagues killed here in Yemen. We've had colleagues kidnapped. You know, the only reason we're here is, is to serve Yemeni people. in situations of dire humanitarian need.

Thank you.

Efraim, and then Edie.

Thank you so much. My name is Efraim Kosayfi with Arab News Daily. About the UN staff in Yemen, given what's happening elsewhere and the systematic attacks we've been seeing for the past 14 months on healthcare workers, whether in Palestine or during the war in Lebanon. I know every one of your staff is there to serve and all of that, but what is the morale really? How much of a trepidation are they looking to the events around them and the way the healthcare and the humanitarian workers are being treated in these wars? Thank you.

Thank you, Adrien. That's a very humane question. The, um, you know, the, the conditions both as a result— I mean, obviously, firstly, there's a result of the detention, um, not just UN personnel but also NGO personnel, and we're completely perturbed. Um, I had many colleagues who for weeks were very anxious about even coming to the office or going out on field missions. And similarly for NGO staff, and, you know, even for myself, you know, I sort of, you know, I was thinking about, goodness, what if they, you know, sort of start trawling— somebody picks up my phone and starts trawling through all my WhatsApp messages with my wife or something, you know. And, you know, when you're in that kind of environment, you're operating in that environment, it's very heavy for everyone. And then in addition, so you've got those challenges, and we've seen some improvements in the operating conditions in the last, say, 2, 3 months. And there's been some changes in the personnel in the authorities in Sana'a, which has meant that some of the problems that we saw have reduced. So we have been having— international staff have no longer been asked to leave Yemen, which was the case up until about 3, 4 months ago, where every week we would have an international staff member asked to leave. And the discussions that we have with the authorities now are much more focused and directed towards finding solutions for Yemenis in need, The agreements which were so difficult to achieve in the past have— for both the UN and NGOs, we've been able to rapidly conclude those. So we've seen some improvements in the operating conditions, and that has reduced the, to a certain extent, the concerns among Yemeni staff. But obviously, when they still see that 16 of their colleagues are detained and INGO staff and national NGO staff are detained, there's obviously a great deal of anxiety. Then if you add in, in addition to that, airstrikes and the fear of more airstrikes, the concerns, the fear of, you know, what's going to happen next. Are we going to see attacks against bridges, roads, electricity systems and other civilian infrastructure? What does that mean for them? As you know, we have 3,000 staff across the country and we're moving around constantly. And, you know, what's going to happen to them? And obviously, you know, we follow the news and we see what happens in other countries. And, you know, my staff and not just my staff, NGO staff and, you know, health workers in government clinics, they look at that and there's a lot of fear. So, you know, it's very difficult to keep people focused and working for vulnerable Yemenis. But fortunately, that is the case. They, you know, everybody's getting on with what's required. But it is a very challenging environment.

I will take a final question from Edie.

Thank you very much, Julian. A couple of follow-ups. Um, who was the highest-ranking, um, Ansar Allah official that you met with? And you— I wonder if you could elaborate. You said that they gave you commitments that you hope are going to lead to the release of these, these people who have been detained. Could you elaborate at all on the kinds of commitments that you got? And on the attacks yesterday, the Israeli government said that they attacked the airport because the Houthis used the airport.

Yes.

And so did the Iranians to ship in things. What's your message to Israel in response to the airport which you've stressed to us is a civilian airport?

Thank you very much, Edith.

The—

in terms— so we met, Director-General Tedros and myself met the— and I'll be using titles which they use to refer to themselves, right? The Prime Minister of the Government of Change and Reconstruction. And obviously, the, you know, the Prime Minister of the internationally recognized government is another person, and that person, you know, is— is in Aden, in the temporary capital. But so we— the Director-General met the Prime Minister of the de facto authority, met the Foreign Minister, Mr. Jamal Ammar, and met a member of the Supreme Political Council, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi. Those were the 3 meetings. The Director-General also met with families of the detained, which was obviously, as you can imagine, a very emotional meeting and was certainly for me as a, as a UN staff member, was probably the most important of the meetings. The commitments that we were given related to the one, the possibility of release and a pathway to that, and the conditions on which they are detained. And I won't be able to go into further details on that. And in terms of the airport, there is only one flight, other than the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and that uses Sana'a Airport, and that's Yemenia Airline, which flies an Airbus A320 to Amman, Jordan. That is the only location that they fly to, and that is a result of an international negotiation. And now, I've flown through Jordan many times, I've flown through Amman Airport many times, And the level of scrutiny and security in Amman Airport is, I would suggest, one of the best in the world. Certainly every time I try and take anything more interesting than my clothes, you know, there's a deep level of scrutiny there. So, you know, it's a civilian airport. There is one civilian flight to one city, which presumably can be quite easily verified by member states that would wish to require— to understand more about that, about that flight. And as I noted, it isn't— that flight operates as a result of an international agreement. I hope that's of help.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, and we will end on this note. Julien, thank you so, so much for taking the time to be with us today, for taking all of these questions. Thank you so much for your availability. All right, thank you. I will take 2 minutes I'm going to go back to the office to grab a few more pieces of paper for you, and I will be right back.