Mukalla: Humanitarian situation in the war-torn port city of Aden has aggravated as rival forces fight to take control of the strategic city, residents and relief organisations said on Tuesday.

Violence erupted in the city and many other areas in the restive south Yemen when the powerful Al Houthi movement backed the forces of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh pushed into the city to dislodge president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi who deployed forces to halt their advance.

Clashes turned bloodier as the rebels approached the city forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes and leaving others stranded in their houses.

Local medics in the city told Gulf News that the number of casualties is spiralling as Al Houthis and forces loyal to Hadi trade shells in residential areas.

“The humanitarian situation is grave. 193 people have been killed and 1,309 injured since March 28,” a local doctor at Medical People’s Committee, non-a government council established by local medics to handle health issues in the city during the crisis, told Gulf News on condition of anonymity.

The doctor said that patients in some medical centres in the city have died because of lack medical services especially those were in need of regular medical help like kidney failure patients.

The doctor said: “We are suffering from post-surgery services. We do not have well-trained medics to handle the growing number of cases.”

Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, a medical charity that runs some health centres in Yemen, said in a statement that their centres in Aden received 612 cases since March 19 and the number dwindled recently when their ambulances came under fire.

“People could not reach our centres and we could not send our ambulances to them because of fighting.” the statement said.

At the same time, local people complained about acute shortage of water, food and fuel. Nasser Al Ragbi, lives in Aden’s Khour Maksar, the epicentre of fighting, told Gulf News that he and his family have been left stranded in their house because of fighting.

“The situation is very bad. We cannot leave the house. There is no power and water. We are worried about running out of food.” Other residents reported seeing mass graves for fighters and civilians. Emad Bakather, Carter region resident, said that bodies of both civilians and fighters were left strewn in the streets.

“The situation in Crater is fairly quiet but there is power cuts and shortage of water. Bodies have been retrieved from the streets and buried in mass graves.”

The humanitarian situation in the neighbouring province of Lahj that witnessed heavy clashes is grave too, according to witnesses.

Aber Saleh, a resident, told Gulf News that she and her family fled Lahj amid long power cuts and shortage of water.

“Al Houthi snipers broke into our houses and stationed on the roofs”, adding she spotted many bodies strewn on the streets when she was leaving the house.