“Yemen is in the heart of its transition,” Special Adviser Jamal Benomar told the 15-member Council, presenting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report. “In a country awash with arms and a history of conflict, such an inclusive process of dialogue is a great achievement.”

The second round of the UN-backed National Dialogue Conference includes 565 delegates representing a cross-section of Yemeni society.

Just back from the capital, Sana’a, Mr. Benomar said “the ‘dialogue’ is extending well beyond the Conference” with men and women engaged in discussions and debates about the problems of their country and its possible future in seminars, roundtables and open tents in town squares.

“As President [Abdrabuh Mansour] Hadi has remarked, we are engaged in more than a political transition; we are witnessing a transformation of the political culture,” Mr. Benomar noted.

The ongoing conference will feed into a constitution-making process and pave the way for general elections in 2014. Preparations for the electoral process are underway, including steps to create a new biometric voter registry, with registration due to begin in September.

The UN has been providing support in Yemen’s transition in four key areas: political facilitation; technical support; capacity-building; and a public information and awareness campaign.

“We understand that there are no guarantees of what lies ahead,” Mr. Benomar told the Council. “It is an undertaking of great hope in a fragile environment, where a range of perspectives and diverse interested are seeking to realize a new and better order.”

He noted that to develop a new constitution, the National Dialogue will need to find a consensual settlement to the ‘Southern question’ linked to southern separatists.

“In the South, the streets are heating up,” Mr. Benomar said, adding that “pent-up resentment at more than two decades of unaddressed grievances and systematic marginalization.”

Since February, there was been a “significant increase” in the frequency and number of demonstrators, some resulting in injuries and deaths.

Two Commissions have been established to address the unlawful or illegitimate seizure of property and unjust dismissal from military and civil service, but without additional resources for the Commissions and further confidence-building measures by the Government or tangible improvements in people’s daily lives, “the voices of discontent will amplify, narrowing the space for dialogue,” he said.

The Special Advisor reiterated to the Council that the only peaceful route to progress is through open dialogue and, importantly, addressing the legacy of the past. He urged Yemeni authorities to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the events of 2011 and to adopt a law on transitional justice.

He also noted the steps taken by President Hadi to restructure the country’s armed forces, a move welcomed in April by Mr. Ban and the Security Council, but stressed that “much more remains to be done to ensure the professionalization” of the forces.

Highlighting other challenges to the country, Mr. Benomar noted that despite all efforts to counter it, Al Qaida remains a lethal threat in the Arabian Peninsula.

In addition, the UN official made reference to “those who wish to undermine the transition,” citing sabotage attacks on the country’s energy exports and its electricity lines, costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Those responsible for these crimes must be brought to account,” Mr. Benomar stressed.

He also cited a partisan war through “misinformation, fabrication and incitement” of the media for political means, and an increase in the assassination of mid and high level security officials and the apparent amassing of weapons among political factions.

“Arms smuggling into Yemen continues,” he said, noting that several shipments have recently been seized.

Also, the humanitarian crisis in the country “continues unabated,” with more than half of the population in need of humanitarian assistance to access food, healthcare, safe water and sanitation, and more than one million children suffering from acute malnutrition, Mr. Benomar said.

Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that more than 90 per cent of the internally displaced people from Abyan, southern Yemen, have returned home.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) dropped from 68,533 last December to 6,133 in April, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists in Geneva.

“The fighting was subsiding, the overall situation looked better and there was an ongoing political process,” Mr. Laerke said.

He added that the resumption of some basic services and reopening of markets had encouraged some people to return, but shelter and agricultural livelihoods remain a concern. As some 80 per cent of the population in the south were farmers, it was critical to assist them in restarting their production.

In addition, the prospects for Yemenis in the north to return to their homes “remains distant,” Mr. Benomar said.

The international humanitarian community has sought $716 million for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan to provide emergency and early recovery assistance to 7.7 million of the country’s most vulnerable. However, the plan is so far only 31 per cent funded. The early recovery sector was only 8.3 per cent funded of the $31.5 million needed.

In May, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had said the country was that a crossroads that could either lead to increased stability or plunge the country back into conflict.

“There will be no political transition if we don’t deal with the humanitarian situation,” Mr. Ahmed told a news conference in Geneva.

“Despite progress, Yemen’s transition remains fragile,” Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said at the opening of the latest ‘Friends of Yemen’ meeting in London.

Thirty-nine organizations and countries attended the meeting to discuss the political, economic, security and humanitarian sectors in Yemen, which has been undergoing a democratic transition, under the leadership of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour, who came to power in the February 2012 election.

Feltman noted that the meeting comes at a “critical juncture” in the transition process – just after the anniversary of Hadi’s election and on the eve of the start of the much anticipated all-inclusive national dialogue, which will feed into a constitution-making progress and pave the way for general elections to be held in 2014.

“President Hadi and the Government have called for sustained international support to Yemeni efforts to keep the process on track. The Friends of Yemen should live up to this call,” he told participants, reminding them that they have a solemn responsibility to stand by the people of Yemen and see the transition succeed.

In the outcome document from the meeting, participants, among other things, stressed their full support for the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen, and reiterated the importance for the transition to be inclusive and a Yemeni-led process.

Also speaking at the meeting, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, said the country stands at a “serious crossroad in its transition” with critical stages still ahead such as the upcoming national dialogue conference, building a new constitution and electoral reform.

“All this against a grave and serious backdrop of a humanitarian crisis for which funding remains critically short, a fragile economy with Yemenis yet to feel a tangible impact on their daily lives, and multiple conflicts continuing across the country…” he stated.

On the positive side, he said the national dialogue conference is a sign that “there is a new politics in the making in Yemen.” The UN has been aiding the preparations for the conference, which is being organized by the “most inclusive committee in Yemen’s political history” – including a range of political party leaders, youth, women, members of the Al Houthi armed group and southern separatists.

In addition, the UN in Yemen developed an Integrated Programme and established a Trust Fund to pool international aid for non-humanitarian projects. Pledges currently stand at $17 million.

Benomar also urged Yemen to establish a commission of inquiry to address transitional justice, and to reach consensus on how to address the legacy of the past, saying that “only with these steps, can Yemen open a new page and ensure a path to national reconciliation.”

Ahead of today’s meeting, UN aid agencies and their partners stressed that there would be no prospects for recovery and development in Yemen unless the humanitarian situation was urgently addressed.

In the past two years, violence forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Most of those fleeing the violence last year in the south have now returned home. The humanitarian community said today that for the returns to be sustainable, “urgent assistance is required to restore damaged infrastructure and basic services and to re-establish law and order.”

The insecurity also led to the near-collapse of most basic services and an increase in poverty, causing alarming rates of food insecurity and malnutrition. More than 10 million people – almost half the country’s population – are estimated to need food assistance, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Child malnutrition rates are also among the highest in the world with close to half of Yemen’s children under five years – two million children – stunted and one million acutely malnourished.

The 2013 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan called for $716 million to provide emergency and early recovery assistance to 7.7 million of the country’s most vulnerable. The figure represents a 22 per cent increase over last year’s plan, which was only 58 per cent funded.

“New donor commitments towards the Humanitarian Response Plan will be critical – not only to addressing human suffering but also to make the progress towards recovery irreversible,” the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said in a press release issued on behalf of the Yemen Humanitarian Country Team.

“If stability is to be maintained and the cycle of violence broken, root causes of the conflict must be addressed, especially unemployment and poverty,” said the Team, which comprises 89 international and national organizations, including UN agencies, under the leadership of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.

The Team called 2013 a crucial year for assistance, and also a “year of opportunity” to focus on building Yemenis’ resilience through restoration of livelihoods and capacity building for local organizations and communities.

Yemen has been undergoing a democratic transition, under the leadership of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour, who came to power in an election in February. This followed the agreement signed by warring factions in November 2011 on a transitional settlement in the wake of widespread protests similar to those seen across the Middle East and North Africa and the resignation of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The transition is on track, but there have been challenges – serious challenges in various areas, including in the political and the security fields,” Jamal Benomar, the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Yemen, told reporters at UN Headquarters.

Benomar, who recently returned from his 14th mission to Yemen, told the Security Council in a closed-door briefing that, for the State to be able to function, it will need to reassert its authority in various parts of the country, especially where armed groups are in control.

Last week a terrorist attack in the capital, Sana’a, resulted in numerous deaths and injuries, including among the security detail of Yemen’s defence minister.

Benomar had strongly condemned the attack, which was the sixth attempt on the minister’s life, in a statement. “This atrocious terrorist attack, which killed a number of innocent Yemenis, civilian and military alike, cannot be justified in any way, and every effort must be made to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” he had stated.

He told the Council that with that terrorist attacks and with the recent attack on the United States Embassy in Sana’a, the re-structuring of the armed forces will need to proceed and the Council will need to support the President in pushing forward this process.

Council members voiced their support for the steps taken by Yemen’s President in reforming and restructuring the security sector, while sharing the concerns by Benomar about ongoing attempts to undermine the transition process.

They also agreed that “comprehensive and inclusive national dialogue should begin without delay in order to lay the foundations for a stable and unified Yemen,” Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for this month, told reporters.

Initial preparations have begun for the national dialogue conference, whose outcome will feed into the constitution-making process that is to conclude in late 2013, enabling general elections to take place in February 2014.

Benomar described the national dialogue as a “historic opportunity” for all Yemenis to come together to address important issues and reported that the preparatory committee for the national dialogue has made progress.

“I told the Council that the atmosphere in this committee was very constructive and the national dialogue is really what will make or break this transition, and it is important that we support this process.”

A high-level meeting of the Friends of Yemen is scheduled to take place in New York on 27 September on the margins of the general debate of the General Assembly with the aim of reaffirming the international community’s strong support for the transition process.

Yemen has been undergoing a democratic transition, under the leadership of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour, who came to power in an election in February. This followed an agreement signed by warring factions in November 2011 on a transitional settlement in the wake of widespread protests similar to those seen across the Middle East and North Africa, and the resignation of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The outcome of the national dialogue conference will feed into the constitution-making process that is to conclude in late 2013, enabling general elections to take place in February 2014.

Mansour has appointed a representative preparatory committee tasked with preparing the ground for the conference; and Ban commended him, as well as the Government and people of Yemen, for “their determination to keep the transition process on track,” the spokesperson said.

He also noted that Ban’s Special Adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, has just concluded a two-week mission to the country during which he engaged with all Yemeni sides to support preparations for the national dialogue and other transition tasks.

The UN has been providing support in Yemen’s transition in four key areas: political facilitation; technical support; capacity-building; and a public information and awareness campaign.