Red Cross gets OK from Saudi-led coalition to send aid to Yemen
Group hopes to help 'streams of wounded' as battle against Houthi rebels rages on
The International Committee for the Red Cross has been granted approval by the Saudi-led military coalition to deliver aid to Yemen.
The aid agency has been negotiating for nearly a week to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shia Houthis. The coalition now controls the country's ports and air space.
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The ICRC hoped that the aircraft would be able to land on Monday in the capital Sanaa. However, it was still awaiting approval for an ICRC surgical team it plans to bring by boat into the southern city of Aden, where fighting remains intense.
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.
"A trip was arranged for them [The Red Cross] in the morning, at 9 a.m. No one came. We were told after fixing the date that there is a request to change the plane. They seem to have chosen a plane from a company that cannot go to Yemen. They have asked to postpone the journey until a later time. That is the case with the Red Cross," Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Asseri told reporters during a news conference in Riyadh.
The coalition says it has set up a special co-ordination 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.
Humanitarian pause sought
The ICRC deploys 300 aid workers, including foreigners, in Yemen, the Arab 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 United Nations said on Thursday that more than 500 people had been killed in two weeks of fighting in Yemen.
Saudi troops clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters last week in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of a Saudi-led air offensive last week, while Yemen's foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.
Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of Arab states since last Thursday in an air campaign against the Houthis, who emerged as the most powerful force in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country when they seized Yemen's capital last year.
The Saudis say their aim is to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who left the country last week. The Houthis are allied with Saudi Arabia's regional foe Iran, and backed by army units loyal to longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was pushed out three years ago after "Arab Spring" demonstrations.