Tag: Yemen

Yemen conflict: Why the battle for Hudaydah matters

Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Hudaydah’s port is the lifeline for just below -thirds of Yemen’s inhabitants

Yemeni professional-government forces backed through a Saudi-led multinational coalition have introduced an assault on the Crimson Sea city of Hudaydah, that’s house to SIX HUNDRED,000 people and is managed by means of the riot Houthi movement.

Aid companies have said the battle would possibly exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian scenario in a country devastated by means of three years of civil war.

Hudaydah’s port is the main lifeline for slightly below two-thirds of Yemen’s population, which is nearly utterly reliant on imports of food, fuel and medicine.

The UN has warned that in a worst-case situation, the fight could cost as much as 250,000 lives, to boot as cut off assist supplies to thousands and thousands of individuals.

Yemen’s struggle in 400 phrases who’s combating whom in Yemen? The Lady with the strawberry ring

Hudaydah, 140km (90 miles) west of the capital Sanaa, was Yemen’s fourth-largest city and a big financial hub prior to rebels took regulate of it in late 2014.

Hudaydah’s region additionally gave it nice strategic significance.

To the west of the town is the Red Sea and leading world delivery lanes which can be used to transport goods between Europe, Asia and Africa by means of the Suez Canal.

To the east is the fertile Tihama simple, Yemen’s most important agricultural area.

And simply to the north is the Ras Isa oil terminal – which served the Marib oilfields and was the country’s main export terminal – and the nearby port of Saleef.

greater than 22 million Yemenis – three-quarters of the inhabitants – need some type of assist, and 8 million do not know the way they’re going to download their next meal.

Hudaydah is a lifeline for people dwelling in revolt-held spaces, serving as the most significant element of access for the basic supplies needed to save you famine and a recurrence of a cholera epidemic that affected 1,000,000 other people last 12 months.

Despite its importance to humanitarian operations, coalition warplanes have regularly bombed Hudaydah’s port. In August 2015, air strikes disabled 4 massive cell cranes, substantially slowing the unloading of food until they had been changed through the u.s. – which helps the coalition – this January.

The release of a ballistic missile towards Riyadh via the Houthis in November 2017 additionally precipitated the coalition to tighten its blockade of Yemen. The coalition said it wanted to halt the smuggling of weapons to the rebels through Iran – an accusation Tehran denied – but the closure of Hudaydah for a few weeks led to sharp increases in prices of elementary commodities, accelerating meals insecurity.

Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption Pro-govt forces have been advancing northwards alongside the Crimson coastline

Nearly 70% of Yemen’s imports have been entering the rustic through Hudaydah and Saleef by way of overdue May 2018, whilst professional-government forces subsidized by means of the United Arab Emirates advanced along the Crimson coastline to inside 10km (6 miles) of Hudaydah.

On Friday, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen said any disruption of aid shipments may place the inhabitants at “excessive, unjustifiable risk”.

“A MILITARY attack or siege on Hudaydah will affect masses of lots of blameless civilians,” Lise Grande warned. “In a protracted worst case, we concern that as many as 250,000 other folks may lose the whole lot – even their lives.”

After the assault on Hudaydah began, Ms Grande reminded all events to the conflict that under international humanitarian law they had to “do the whole thing possible to protect civilians and ensure they have got get admission to to the help they need to survive”. “Presently, not anything is more vital,” she delivered.

The Global Committee of the Crimson Cross mentioned it had positioned meals, clinical supplies, water purification techniques and sanitation provides in Hudaydah, but that it would combat to distribute them as soon as fighting reached the city.

The agency additionally expressed worry approximately Hudaydah’s water and electricity networks, which it said have been vital to the population’s survival.

The International Crisis Group anticipated that essentially the most most likely end result of the struggle for Hudaydah – one in every of Yemen’s so much densely populated areas – was “now not a snappy, clean victory for presidency forces adopted by outright Houthi capitulation, as a few desire, however prolonged and damaging preventing”.

It mentioned that professional-executive forces took months to consolidate keep an eye on over the small coastal town of Mocha final 12 months, and that the Houthis were entrenched in Hudaydah and sure to try to hold directly to town for as lengthy as conceivable.

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June 15, 2018
Yemen conflict: Hudaydah’s ‘calm before the storm’

Image copyright AFP Symbol caption Greater Than 8 million Yemenis are at risk of famine

In Hudaydah, as in towns and towns across Yemen, the conflict has affected all aspects of existence because it started in 2015.

Yemen was once already a number of the poorest Arab nations, and the warfare is now threatening one among its most populated cities.

Much of the rustic’s food and scientific supplies travel in the course of the port town, making the location even worse for the tens of millions facing hunger.

“you’ll be able to see the misery in other people’s eyes,” a local journalist advised the BBC.

The new offensive comes amid the warmth and humidity of Yemen’s summer, with temperatures attaining 37C (98.6F) and frequent energy cuts.

Be Informed more approximately Yemen’s warfare

Yemen’s struggle in FOUR HUNDRED phrases Why this battle matters who is fighting whom?

Despite The Fact That military operations have not but reached throughout the port city, the sounds of plane circling overhead may also be heard and citizens are tense.

Both Mr Wasel and Salem Baobaid, director of Islamic Relief’s Hudaydah place of work, agree that markets within the town are “fairly commonplace”.

But on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the pageant which marks the end of Ramadan, markets should be bustling with folks shopping for new clothes, items and food.

Instead, locals are trying to top off on very important meals and provisions, says Oxfam’s Dina El-Mamoun. She describes the present scenario as “the calm before the storm”.

Fuel shortages and worth rises have additionally been reported in response to the approaching attack on the city, in line with Ms El-Mamoun.

She says that considering that last week, displacement in the town and the surrounding spaces has “larger dramatically”, reflecting what she described as a rising development of displacement inside Hudaydah governorate. lots of folks that have fled at the moment are stranded in makeshift tents within the heart of nowhere.

However, like different Yemenis, lots of Hudaydah’s citizens have not received their salaries for months, and Mr Wasel explains that this has meant that the majority folks cannot have enough money to depart the town and transfer to other spaces.

Mr Boabaid explains that there has not yet been an exodus from the city, however notes that his employer is preparing for a possible disaster.

Yet it is not just town’s citizens – including its 300,000 children – who are in danger as a result of the impending military operations. Mark Lowcock, head of the UN’s reduction efforts, has prior to now warned that more than 90% of Yemen’s imported meals and medical supplies enter the country through Hudaydah.

as well as to providing such a lot of the meals assist for revolt-held areas, Hudaydah’s port may be the main access for gasoline imports for the north.

The danger of any other vital humanitarian scenario adds to the burden of a country already going through warfare, famine and the spread of sicknesses similar to cholera, diphtheria and measles.

June 15, 2018
Saudi-led forces launch biggest attack of Yemen battle with attack on main port of Hodeida – The Globe and Mail

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on this handout file photo from the United Arab Emirates News Agency, a UAE military convoy travels from the Al-Hamra military base to Zayed town after getting back from Yemen. Yemeni forces subsidized by Saudi Arabia and the UAE massed across the key port town of Hodeida on June THIRTEEN, 2018 in a bid to seize it from Iran-subsidized Houthi rebels.

-/Getty Images

A Saudi-led alliance of Arab states launched the biggest attack of Yemen ’s conflict on Wednesday with an attack at the major port city, aiming to power the ruling Houthi movement to its knees on the possibility of worsening the sector ’s largest humanitarian problem.

Arab warplanes and warships pounded Houthi fortifications to beef up ground operations by way of overseas and Yemeni troops massed south of the port of Hodeida in operation “Golden Victory.”

The assault marks the first time the Arab states have attempted to capture this type of closely-defended prime city due to the fact they joined the struggle 3 years in the past against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who keep watch over the capital Sanaa and so much of the populated spaces.

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The Houthis had deployed military vehicles and troops in the town centre and near the port, as coalition warplanes flew overhead hanging a coastal strip to the south, one resident, speaking on situation of anonymity, advised Reuters. Other People have been fleeing through routes out to the north and west.

CARE International, considered one of the few aid firms still running in Hodeida, mentioned 30 airstrikes had hit town inside part an hour on Wednesday morning.

“Some civilians are entrapped, others compelled from their homes. We idea it will no longer get any worse, however sadly we have been fallacious,” mentioned CARE appearing united states director, Jolien Veldwijk.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TELEVISION quoted witnesses describing “concentrated and extreme” bombing near the port itself.

The United International Locations fears the assault may just drastically worsen already determined conditions within the region ’s poorest united states of america. the city and surrounding space are home to 600,000 people, and the port is the primary path for food and assist to achieve so much Yemenis, 8.4 million of whom are at the verge of famine.

“Below global humanitarian legislation, parties to the battle have to do everything possible to offer protection to civilians and make sure they have got get right of entry to to the help they want to survive. right now, not anything is extra important,” said Lise Grande, U.N. humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, who is in Sanaa.

UN refugee leader Filippo Grandi said there has been a threat of a more speedy quandary if Yemenis started to abandon their houses in huge numbers.

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Port employees informed Reuters five ships were docked at Hodeida port unloading items, but no new access permits could be issued on Wednesday as a result of the fighting. The Arab states say they are going to try to stay the port operating and can ease the crisis after they take hold of it by lifting import restrictions they have imposed.

Western countries, particularly the United States Of America and Britain, have quietly sponsored the Arab states diplomatically and sell them billions of dollars a year in palms, however have mostly have shyed away from direct public involvement so far in the Yemen conflict. an incredible combat may just take a look at that fortify, particularly if many civilians are killed or supplies disrupted.

The operation started after the passing of a three-day deadline set by way of the United Arab Emirates, one in every of the coalition ’s leaders, for the Houthis to hand over the port.

“The liberation of the port is the start of the autumn of the Houthi armed forces and will safe marine delivery in the Bab al-Mandab strait and bring to an end the arms of Iran, which has long drowned Yemen in weapons that shed valuable Yemeni blood,” the Arab-backed executive-in-exile stated in a press release.

Houthi chief Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, who has threatened assaults on oil tankers, warned the alliance to not attack the port and stated on Twitter his forces had struck a coalition barge. there was no rapid confirmation from the coalition.

The Arab states ’ aim is to field in the Houthis in Sanaa, minimize their provide strains and power them to the negotiating desk.

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A Yemeni anti-Houthi army reliable stated the alliance had brought to endure a 21,000-sturdy force. It comprises Emirati and Sudanese troops in addition as Yemenis, drawn from southern separatists, native Red Beach combatants and a battalion led by way of a nephew of late ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The United International Locations had been trying to get the events to succeed in a deal to avert an assault. An attack was “more likely to exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation,” Crimson Cross spokeswoman Marie-Claire Feghali said.

A draft for a UN peace plan for Yemen exclusively observed by means of Reuters calls at the Houthi motion to give up its ballistic missiles in go back for an end to a bombing marketing campaign from a Saudi-led coalition. Reuters

With its military intervention in Yemen, the alliance goals to revive the federal government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was once driven from Sanaa and into exile in 2014.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi see the Houthi rise as expansionism through their Shi ’ite foe, Iran. The Houthis, drawn from a Shi ’ite minority that dominated 1000-12 months kingdom in Yemen until 1962, say they took energy via a well-liked insurrection towards corruption and at the moment are defending Yemen from invasion by way of its neighbours.

Yemen has been in obstacle in view that 2011 mass protests that ended the 33-12 months rule of Saleh. A Saudi-brokered transition introduced Hadi to energy in a central authority that sidelined the Houthis, who turn into disgruntled and captured a lot of the country.

For a time Saleh joined forces with the Houthis, even though they became on one another last year and Saleh used to be killed. Parts of Yemen are also held by al Qaeda and Islamic State militants.

Yemen lies beside the southern mouth of the Crimson Sea, one among the sector ’s most important industry routes, the place oil tankers pass from the center East during the Suez Canal to Europe.

June 14, 2018
Yemen problem: WHO IS fighting whom?

Image copyright EPA Symbol caption More Than 60% of civilian deaths have been the result of Saudi-led air strikes, the UN says

Yemen, considered one of the Arab world’s poorest nations, has been devastated by way of a battle among forces loyal to the the world over-recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and people allied to the Houthi rebellion movement.

Greater Than 6,800 folks were killed and 35,000 injured due to the fact that March 2015, the majority in air moves by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs the president.

The conflict and a blockade imposed by way of the coalition have additionally induced a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80% of the population in need of aid.

How did the warfare get started?

Image copyright AFP Symbol caption Houthi insurrection combatants entered Sanaa in September 2014 and took complete control in January 2015

The war has its roots within the failure of the political transition that was once speculated to bring steadiness to Yemen following an uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, handy over energy to Mr Hadi, his deputy, in November 2011.

Mr Hadi struggled to maintain a wide range of problems, together with attacks by way of al-Qaeda, a separatist movement in the south, the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Mr Saleh, to boot as corruption, unemployment and meals insecurity.

Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Ali Abdullah Saleh was once compelled at hand over the presidency after an uprising in 2011

The Houthi motion, which champions Yemen’s Zaidi Shia Muslim minority and fought a chain of rebellions against Mr Saleh throughout the earlier decade, took good thing about the new president’s weakness by means of taking control of their northern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring spaces.

Disillusioned with the transition, many bizarre Yemenis – including Sunnis – supported the Houthis and in September 2014 they entered the capital, Sanaa, putting in place street camps and roadblocks.

Media captionWho are the Houthis? The BBC’s Mai Noman experiences from Sanaa

In January 2015, the Houthis strengthened their takeover of Sanaa, surrounding the presidential palace and other key points and effectively placing Mr Hadi and his cupboard ministers beneath space arrest.

The president escaped to the southern port city of Aden the next month.

Symbol copyright AFP Image caption A Saudi-led multinational coalition intervened within the warfare in Yemen in March 2015

The Houthis and security forces unswerving to Mr Saleh then attempted to take keep watch over of the entire u . s ., forcing Mr Hadi to escape abroad in March 2015.

Alarmed by means of the rise of a bunch they believed to be sponsored militarily by means of nearby Shia power Iran, Saudi Arabia and eight other most commonly Sunni Arab states began an air campaign geared toward restoring Mr Hadi’s executive.

The coalition gained logistical and intelligence strengthen from the u.s., UK and France.

The upward push of Yemen’s Houthi rebels

Meeting the Houthis – and their enemies

What’s took place given that then?

Media caption”there’s a recreation kids play right here. It Is referred to as 1, 2, THREE airstrike”: Gabriel Gatehouse

After more than a year-and-a-half of fighting, no side seems with regards to a decisive military victory.

Professional-government forces – made up of infantrymen dependable to President Hadi and predominantly Sunni southern tribesmen and separatists – had been successful in stopping the rebels taking Aden, but best after a fierce, 4-month struggle that left masses useless.

Having based a beachhead, coalition ground troops landed in Aden that August and helped pressure the Houthis and their allies out of a lot of the south over the next months. Mr Hadi and his government lower back from exile on the comparable time and established a short lived house in Aden.

But in the previous yr, in spite of the air campaign and naval blockade continuing unabated, professional-government forces were not able to dislodge the rebels from their northern strongholds, together with Sanaa and its surrounding province.

Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Pro-executive forces have pushed the rebels out of such a lot of southern Yemen

The Houthis have also been capable of take care of a siege of the southern town of Taiz and to continue firing missiles and mortars around the border with Saudi Arabia nearly daily.

Jihadist militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and rival associates of so-called Islamic State (IS) have in the meantime taken good thing about the chaos by way of seizing territory in the south and stepping up their attacks, significantly in executive-managed Aden.

A war that has set Yemen again decades

Inside Yemen’s forgotten struggle

A younger lady and a city struggling for lifestyles

What does Islamic State want with Yemen?

What Is been the impact on civilians?

Media captionThis man was handled in Taiz with none anaesthetic, studies Safa AlAhmad

Civilians have borne the brunt of the preventing and repeatedly been the victims of what activists have described as severe violations of global regulation through all parties.

By early October, at least 4,ONE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE civilians have been killed and 7,207 others injured, in line with the United International Locations. With just below half of the population underneath the age of 18, kids constituted a 3rd of all civilian deaths during the first 12 months of the warfare.

The destruction of civilian infrastructure and regulations on meals and gasoline imports have also ended in 21 million folks being deprived of existence-maintaining commodities and fundamental services and products.

Media captionThe BBC’s Nawal al-Maghafi visits an area of Yemen where prime help companies can no longer operate

The UN says 3.1 million Yemenis are internally displaced, whilst 14 million individuals are affected by meals lack of confidence and 370,000 children under the age of 5 are in danger of starving to death.

Greater Than 1,900 of the country’s THREE,500 health amenities are also these days both not functioning or in part functioning, leaving part the population without good enough healthcare.

Dying in silence: Yemen’s devastated health system

One woman’s lonely struggle towards famine in Yemen

Practising drugs below hearth in Yemen

Yemen’s humanitarian catastrophe

Why have peace efforts failed?

Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he wanted a “sustainable option to the warfare”

there has been desire of a breakthrough at a 2d spherical of UN-brokered talks that opened in Kuwait in April 2016, with both the Houthis and the Saudis reputedly stressed and keen to negotiate.

Alternatively, the talks collapsed 3 months later, triggering an escalation within the preventing that the UN said resulted in the choice of civilian casualties emerging dramatically.

Mr Hadi’s government says the political procedure can only continue if UN Safety Council answer 2216, which requires the rebels to withdraw from all spaces they keep watch over and lay down their palms, is totally implemented.

Why must this matter for the remainder of the arena?

Image copyright AFP Image caption Suicide bombings claimed via so-called Islamic State have killed dozens of individuals in Aden

What occurs in Yemen can greatly exacerbate neighborhood tensions. It also concerns the West because of the danger of assaults emanating from the rustic as it turns into extra unstable.

Western intelligence businesses imagine AQAP probably the most dangerous department of al-Qaeda as a result of its technical experience and international succeed in, and the emergence of IS affiliates in Yemen is a major concern.

The warfare among the Houthis and the elected govt is also seen as part of a local energy fight among Shia-dominated Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

Gulf Arab states have accused Iran of backing the Houthis financially and militarily, though Iran has denied this, and so they are themselves backers of President Hadi.

Yemen is strategically essential because it sits at the Bab al-Mandab strait, a narrow waterway linking the Crimson Sea with the Gulf of Aden, during which so much of the arena’s oil shipments pass.

The UK’s subtle balancing act in Yemen

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June 14, 2018
Saudi-led forces begin assault on Yemen port city of Hodeida

A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began an assault Wednesday on the port city of Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine, raising warnings

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began an assault Wednesday on the port city of Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine, raising warnings from aid agencies that Yemen’s humanitarian disaster could deepen.

The assault on the Red Sea port aims to drive out Iranian-aligned Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, who have held Hodeida since 2015, and a victory could be a major shift in a war that has been stalemated. But it could bring the first major street-to-street fighting for the coalition, a potentially dragged out battle deadly for combatants and civilians alike.

The fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida’s port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen’s food enters the country via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country’s population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are even worse off, at risk of starving already.

Before dawn Wednesday, convoys of vehicles appeared to be heading toward the rebel-held city, according to videos posted on social media. The sound of heavy, sustained gunfire clearly could be heard in the background.

Saudi-owned satellite news channels and later state media announced the battle had begun, citing military sources. They also reported coalition airstrikes and shelling by naval ships.

The initial battle plan appeared to involve a pincer movement. Some 2,000 troops who crossed the Red Sea from an Emirati naval base in the African nation of Eritrea landed west of the city with plans to seize Hodeida’s port, Yemeni security officials said.

Emirati forces with Yemeni troops moved in from the south near Hodeida’s airport, while others sought to cut off Houthi supply lines to the east, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.

Yemen’s exiled government “has exhausted all peaceful and political means to remove the Houthi militia from the port of Hodeida,” it said in a statement. “Liberation of the port of Hodeida is a milestone in our struggle to regain Yemen from the militias.”

The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel later acknowledged the offensive, claiming rebel forces hit a Saudi coalition ship near Hodeida with two missiles. Houthi forces have fired missiles at ships previously.

“The targeted ship was carrying troops prepared for a landing on the coast of Hodeida,” the channel said.

The Saudi-led coalition did not immediately acknowledge the incident. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose area of responsibility includes the Red Sea, referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Forces loyal to Yemen’s exiled government and irregular fighters led by Emirati troops had neared Hodeida in recent days. The port is some 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital held by the Houthis since they swept into the city in September 2014. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 and has received logistical support from the U.S.

Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash earlier told French newspaper Le Figaro the deadline for a withdrawal from Hodeida by the Houthis expired early Wednesday morning.

The United Nations and other aid groups already had pulled their international staff from Hodeida ahead of the rumored assault.

However, so far, the port remains open, with supplies arriving. Several ships arrived in the past days, including oil tankers, and there has been no word from the coalition or U.N. to stop work, according to a senior port official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

“If this vital route for supplying food, fuel and medicine is blocked, the result will be more hunger, more people without health care and more families burying their loved ones,” Oxfam’s country director in Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, warned last week.

Over 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, which has displaced 2 million more and helped spawn a cholera epidemic. The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for its airstrikes killing civilians. Meanwhile, the U.N. and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons from assault rifles up to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

The war has also pushed Yemen into near famine. The coalition has blockaded most ports, letting supplies into Hodeida in coordination with the U.N. A Saudi-led airstrike in 2015 destroyed cranes at Hodeida. The United Nations in January shipped in mobile cranes to help unload ships there. The air campaign and fighting has also disrupted supply lines and caused an economic crisis that made food too expensive for many to buy.

The U.N. says some 600,000 people live in and around Hodeida, and “as many as 250,000 people may lose everything – even their lives” in the assault. Already, Yemeni security officials said some were fleeing the fighting.

“We hear sounds of explosions. We are concerned about missiles and shells. Some workers have left to their villages for fear of the war,” said Mohammed, a Hodeida resident who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.

Aid workers had similar fears.

“We have had more than 30 airstrikes within 30 minutes this morning around the city. Some civilians are entrapped, others forced from their homes,” said Jolien Veldwijk, the acting country director of the aid group CARE International, which works in Hodeida. “We thought it could not get any worse, but unfortunately we were wrong.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths was in “intense negotiations” in an attempt to avoid a military confrontation. However, Griffiths’ recent appointment as envoy and his push for new negotiations may have encouraged the Saudi-led coalition to strengthen its hand ahead of any peace talks with the Houthis.

The attack also comes as Washington has been focused on President Donald Trump’s recent summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. A statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday he spoke with Emirati officials and “made clear our desire to address their security concerns while preserving the free flow of humanitarian aid and life-saving commercial imports.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday acknowledged the U.S. continues to provide support to the Saudi-led coalition.

“It’s providing any intel, or anything we can give to show no-fire areas where there are civilians, where there’s mosques, hospitals, that sort of thing – (and) aerial refueling, so nobody feels like I’ve got to drop the bomb and get back now,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what specific American support the coalition was receiving Wednesday.

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Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Maggie Michael in Aden, Yemen; and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

June 13, 2018
Red Cross worker killed in Yemen highlights danger in world’s worst humanitarian crisis: U.N.

A Red Cross employee was shot and killed in the Taiz Governorate in Yemen last week, which international organizations are condemning as a targeted killing on a humanitarian aid worker.

A Red Cross employee was shot and killed in the Taiz Governorate in Yemen last week, which international organizations are condemning as a targeted killing on a humanitarian aid worker.

Hanna Lahoud, a Lebanese national, was gunned down by unknown assailants while traveling as a member and with other workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

He was traveling for a detention visit to check conditions and well-being of prisoners when he was attacked, the ICRCsaid in a statement. Lahoud was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries. Other colleagues in the car were unharmed.

“We condemn this brutal and apparently deliberate attack on a dedicated humanitarian worker,” Robert Mardini, the ICRC’s Middle East director, said in a statement.

“We are all in shock. Hanna was a young man full of life and was widely known and liked. Nothing can justify Hanna’s murder and we are in deep mourning for our dear friend and colleague. Our hearts and thoughts are with Hanna’s loved ones and friends.”

Lahoud had worked for the ICRC for about eight years, the organization said. Before joining the ICRC he was a first aid volunteer and staff with the Lebanese Red Cross.

Ralph El Have, a spokesman for the ICRC, told the BBC that not all Red Cross vehicles are marked but that “everyone knows who we are.”

“… Attacks on humanitarian workers, whether they are intended towards humanitarian workers or whether they are just intended against any civilian or any person who happens to be at the wrong place or the wrong time, they continue to happen in war-torn countries,” he told the radio service.

Mr. El Have described Taiz as one of the most devastated cities and provinces in Yemen, with active fighting between different parties and individuals.

“Proliferation of arms has unfortunately come to an extent you don’t know who is an armed man or an armed person part of an organized group,” he said.

The ICRC goes to great lengths to maintain its neutrality in conflict zones, dismissing outright the idea of arming their staff or providing armed security. They’ll instead remove their aid workers for a time if they can’t guarantee their safety.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General issued a statement condemning the killing and emphasized that all parties to the conflict protect aid workers servicing an estimated 22 million people in the war-torn country.

Yemen is in the third year of a brutal civil war between Iranian-backed Houthi rebel extremists in the north of the country, against government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in the South.

The conflict has plunged the Middle East’s poorest country into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with three-quarters of the population needing aid and protection, according to the U.N.

At least 60 percent of the population are food insecure with 8.4 million people not knowing where their next meal is coming from.

Less than 50 percent of health facilities are functioning and 18 percent of districts have no doctors — 16 million people do not have regular access to basic healthcare.

Fifty percent of all children are stunted from lack of adequate nutrition.

A cholera outbreak has largely come under control, but at least 55 percent of the population does not have regular access to safe water and basic hygiene.

April 24, 2018