Situation ‘catastrophic’ in Yemen’s Aden - Saudi-led airstrikes hit Yemen’s south amid ground fighting - Kuwait Times |
ADEN: The Red Cross warned yesterday of a “catastrophic” situation in Yemen’s main southern city Aden, as loyalist forces battled rebels in the streets backed by shelling by Saudi-led warships. The Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels and their allies made a new push on a port in the central Mualla district of the city but were forced back by militia loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, witnesses said.
Naval forces of the Saudi-led coalition, which has carried out nearly two weeks of air strikes in support of Hadi’s beleaguered government, shelled rebel positions across the city, they added.
Spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali, said that the humanitarian situation in all of Yemen is “very difficult...(with) naval, air and ground routes cut off.” She described the situation in Aden as “catastrophic to say the least.” “The war in Aden is on every street, in every corner... Many are unable to escape,” she said. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the situation was “worsening by the day,” with wounded people unable to get to hospital because of the fighting. The MSF medical team in Aden had “not received large numbers of casualties over the past few days, not because there are no wounded people, but due to the difficulties faced in trying to reach a hospital,” MSF Yemen representative Marie-Elisabeth Ingres said. MSF has a team of 140 local staff and eight expatriates at a hospital in Aden. “Our priority is to find a way to send a supporting medical team,” Ingres told AFP, adding that a team is waiting in Djibouti “for a greenlight from the coalition.”
At least 10 people were killed in fighting in Aden overnight, medical and security sources said. That was on top of at least 53 people killed over the previous 24 hours. Nationwide, more than 540 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded in fighting in Yemen since March 19, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
The UN’s children agency UNICEF said at least 74 children had been confirmed killed since the coalition air strikes began on March 26, adding that it believed the real figure to be much higher. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, the agency added. During the night, Saudi-led warplanes carried out fresh strikes on the rebel-held Al-Anad air base north of Aden, pro-Hadi General Muthanna Jawas said.❞