Yemen's nearly two-month-old ceasefire has improved humanitarian access, but civilians are still facing an "immeasurable" crisis, the UN said Thursday (June 2nd).
"The ceasefire has provided us an opportunity to get to areas we have not been able to get before," the UN humanitarian chief in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, told AFP.
He said that while no part of Yemen had been besieged, a number of areas have proved extremely hard to reach since the conflict escalated in March last year.
McGoldrick said it was difficult to estimate the number of civilians reached with aid since the ceasefire came into force.
The UN is trying to assess the needs nationwide during the lull in violence, he added.
Fighting also has continued despite the truce.
"The scale of the emergency is tremendous. The scale of the need is massive and the depth of the crisis is immeasurable," McGoldrick said.
Government services and the health system were hardly functioning before the conflict and "the war has all but broken them completely", he added.
