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First ICRC aid flight arrives in Yemen capital

Tuesday, 07 April 2015 4:01 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 07 April 2015 4:00 PM ]

A Yemeni boy carries water containers in the capital, Sana’a, on April 7, 2015. © AFP

The first flight of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), carrying medical personnel, has landed in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, as the Al Saud regime’s warplanes continue to bomb the crisis-torn country.

“First ICRC flight reached Sana’a. More to come by air and sea when clearances received to bring urgently needed medical supplies,” Dominik Stillhart, the director of operations at the ICRC, posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

According to Sitara Jabeen, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, the flight was a small passenger plane and landed on Monday, adding that another cargo plane with medical supplies was waiting in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

She added that the second flight “will go to Sana’a tomorrow.”

Earlier in the day, the ICRC warned about the humanitarian situation across Yemen, which has witnessed deadly aerial assaults by Riyadh’s fighter jets over the past days.

“The humanitarian situation in Yemen is very difficult... (with) naval, air, and ground routes cut off,” said the spokeswoman for the ICRC in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali, adding, “The priority for the Red Cross right now is for hospitals to continue to operate and to save the lives of as many people as possible.”

The ICRC official’s comments come as fresh Saudi airstrikes on Yemen’s southwestern province of Ibb claimed the lives of at least six school students. According to reports, warplanes pounded the province under the pretext of bombing the Yemeni army’s Al Hamza Brigade.

Smoke rises from the Faj Attan Hill area in the Yemeni capital Sana'a on April 7, 2015, following an airstrike by Saudi Arabia on the area. © AFP

Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen started on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The airstrikes have killed hundreds of people and injured thousands more.

More than 540 people have been killed in Yemen since the military conflict began in the Arab country in mid-March, according to the World Health Organization.

Ansarullah revolutionaries say Hadi, who is now in Riyadh, lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he fled the capital to Aden in February.

Popular committees backed by Ansarullah fighters are continuing their advances despite the Saudi attacks while stepping up their fight against al-Qaeda terrorists and securing many areas from the militants.

IA/MKA/SS

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