German FM says Yemen worst humanitarian crisis

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister says that the situation in Yemen is “probably the worst humanitarian catastrophe right now worldwide,” worse than the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh whose plight has captured global attention.

Sigmar Gabriel said after a Monday meeting in Paris with his French counterpart that Yemen “is even more dramatic” now than that of the Rohingyas, who fled Myanmar by the hundreds of thousands to escape a crackdown.

How to enable access to humanitarian aid to people caught in a war supported on one side by Saudi Arabia and by Iran on the other is a topic the European Union and the U.S. must try to resolve, he said.

The humanitarian crisis worsened after a rocket was fired in November to Riyadh, and Saudi restricted access to Yemen.