Saudi-led coalition approves Red Cross aid for Yemen

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, France24 and BBC News, Beirut

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Latest update : 2015-04-06

The Red Cross hopes to bring vital medical supplies and aid workers into Yemen after receiving approval from the Saudi-led military coalition, a spokeswoman for the agency said Sunday as rebel forces made new gains in the southern city of Aden.

After nearly a week of negotiations to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite Houthis, the International Committee of the Red Cross now hopes to enter the country on Monday, ICRC spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen told Reuters.
“We have received permission from the coalition for two planes now, one carrying supplies and one with staff,” she said.
In Riyadh, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said arrangements had been made for at least one Red Cross aid delivery on Sunday morning, but the ICRC had pulled out of the arrangement.
“There was a trip fixed for them at 9 this morning ... They informed us, after the time was set, of a request to delay the flight,” Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told reporters, adding that this was because the company from which they had chartered the plane could not fly to Yemen.
The coalition says it has set up a special coordination body for aid deliveries and asked NGOs and governments to work with it to ensure humanitarian aid can be brought into Yemen and foreign nationals can be evacuated safely.
The ICRC deploys 300 aid workers, including foreigners, in Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country. On Saturday it called for a 24-hour humanitarian pause in the conflict to allow aid to reach people cut off by air strikes and to save the lives of "streams of wounded".
The aid agency plans to land the aircraft in the capital Sanaa, said Jabeen. However, it was still awaiting approval for an ICRC surgical team it plans to bring by boat into Aden, where fighting remains intense.
Rebels advance in Aden
On Sunday, the rebels advanced into the city's central port district of Mualla, capturing the provincial government headquarters, a local official said.
Mualla is defended by "popular committees" militiamen loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
The rebels bombarded residential areas, setting fire to several buildings and damaging others, witnesses said.
At least five civilians were killed and 14 wounded in the latest clashes, according to the city's health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar.
"There are children among the wounded," he said.
General Assiri has accused the rebels of "terrorising" civilians in the city and residents said dozens of families had fled their homes in Aden, the heart of which sits on an extinct volcano jutting out into the sea.
"Snipers, who took position on the roofs of provincial government buildings, targeted passers-by and members of the popular committees," pro-Hadi fighter Khalid Bashaea told AFP.
The rebels also fired mortar rounds at an Aden television station loyal to Hadi, forcing it off the air.
Violence has escalated sharply in the deeply tribal country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula since the coalition launched Operation Decisive Storm against the rebels on March 26.
The United Nations said on Thursday that more than 500 people had been killed in two weeks of fighting in Yemen.