Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12777, what assessment she has made of whether each party to the conflict is taking reasonable steps to allow access to Yemen’s ports for (a) fuel for civilian use and (b) other commercial and humanitarian goods.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK welcomes the improvement in access for commercial and humanitarian shipping to Yemen’s ports over the last two weeks. In October, a total of 60 ships of all types entered Yemeni ports, including grain ships, fuel tankers, and humanitarian ships. We will continue to work with the Coalition and the Government of Yemen to ensure this improvement is sustained.

We will also continue to call on all parties to the conflict to safeguard key infrastructure, including airports, sea ports, fuel distribution sites and major access routes into Yemen; and to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.