The situation for ordinary Venezuelans is increasingly critical but the United Nations (UN) remains committed to providing humanitarian support, based on “need, and need alone,” said a senior aid official. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the UN’s aid coordinating branch, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), underlined that it was observing developments at Venezuela’s border with Colombia, where an aid convoy arrived recently. “On the situation at the border, the UN is monitoring that situation closely,” said Jens Laerke from the OCHA. “The ideal scenario is that humanitarian aid is provided, independent of any political or other considerations than the pure humanitarian, and that is based on need and need alone.” At the border, the World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed that needs are at “crisis”-like levels inside Venezuela, where opposition politician Juan Guaido declared himself interim President last month, amid deepening economic and political uncertainty. “How can we know if people are starving or not? Just stay at the border with Colombia, and look who is coming into Colombia,” said WFP senior spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel. He said 1.2 million people had come, “starving, in Colombia with no money, no food, no medicine… Yes of course there’s a crisis in the country.” WFP has been providing emergency food assistance at the Colombian border since early 2018.

The situation for ordinary Venezuelans is increasingly critical but the United Nations (UN) remains committed to providing humanitarian support, based on “need, and need alone,” said a senior aid official.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, the UN’s aid coordinating branch, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), underlined that it was observing developments at Venezuela’s border with Colombia, where an aid convoy arrived recently.

“On the situation at the border, the UN is monitoring that situation closely,” said Jens Laerke from the OCHA. “The ideal scenario is that humanitarian aid is provided, independent of any political or other considerations than the pure humanitarian, and that is based on need and need alone.”

At the border, the World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed that needs are at “crisis”-like levels inside Venezuela, where opposition politician Juan Guaido declared himself interim President last month, amid deepening economic and political uncertainty.

“How can we know if people are starving or not? Just stay at the border with Colombia, and look who is coming into Colombia,” said WFP senior spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel. He said 1.2 million people had come, “starving, in Colombia with no money, no food, no medicine… Yes of course there’s a crisis in the country.”

WFP has been providing emergency food assistance at the Colombian border since early 2018.