Geneva, Sana’a: An initial Red Cross flight transporting medical personnel has reached the Yemeni capital Sana’a, the organisation said on Tuesday, as fighting in the Arabian Peninsula country led to warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
“First @ICRC flight reached Sana’a. More to come by air and sea when clearances received to bring urgently needed medical supplies,” Dominik Stillhart, director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross, posted on his Twitter account.
ICRC spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen said the first flight was a small passenger plane carrying medical staff and that it landed on Monday. A cargo plane with medical supplies was waiting in Amman, she said.
“This plane will go to Sana’a tomorrow,” said Jabeen.
The organisation was also planning to send another aid shipment with a plane that would travel from Geneva to Sana’a.
Relief workers have warned of a dire situation in the impoverished country, where a Saudi-led coalition is waging an air war on the Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels.
Saudi-led coalition jets bombed a military installation in southern Yemen on Tuesday as local tribes battled Al Houthis and their allies in the area, seizing a makeshift camp and weapons, Yemeni military officials said.
The fighting in southern Ibb province came as the UN children’s welfare agency warned that more than 100,000 people have fled their homes in different provinces in Yemen seeking safety from the violence. According to Unicef, at least 74 children have also been killed since the fighting between Yemeni rivals intensified and the coalition air strike campaign began two weeks ago.
A medical volunteer in the Maytam district in Ibb said the air strike on a Republican Guards’ camp wounded at least 25 troops. The Guards’ unit is loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with the rebels in their power grab in Yemen.
Residents say the camp was close to a school. The rebel television station, Al Masirah, said three children were killed in the air strike. The medical volunteer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, could not confirm the children’s deaths.
About 50 kilometres south of the camp, local tribes battled with Al Houthis who had set up a makeshift camp in the area, driving the rebels away and seizing their weapons, a local resident said, also speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Civilians have paid a heavy toll for the violence that mushroomed from an internal power struggle into a regional war, drawing in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Children have been especially vulnerable, said Unicef’s Yemen representative, Julien Harneis.
“They are being killed, maimed and forced to flee their homes, their health threatened and their education interrupted,” Harneis said in a statement, released Monday. Warring factions have also increased their recruitment of children under the age of 18.
The agency said at least 74 children have been killed and 44 wounded since March 26, when the Saudi-led air campaign began.
Last week, the UN said more than 500 civilians have been killed in the last two weeks. Comprehensive casualty figures are difficult to collect and verify because of the ongoing violence.
The Saudi-led campaign, which supports Hadi, now in its 13th day, has so far failed to stop Al Houthis’ advance on Aden — Yemen’s second-largest city, which was declared a provisional capital by Hadi before he fled the country to Saudi Arabia.