‘Scores’ killed in Yemen as UAEbacked fighters seize parts of Aden
YEMEN - “Scores” of people were killed and hundreds wounded during recent fighting in Yemen’s key port of Aden when southern separatists - trained by the UAE - seized key locations of the city from Saudi-backed government forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Aden told the Guardian that large parts of the city were also left without electricity and water during the fighting after services were targeted. Humanitarian staff warned that any further fighting between forces allied with the two coalition partners would be “devastating”.
The clashes, which pitted the forces backed by the two erstwhile Gulf allies in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen against each other, have further complicated what is already the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, threatening a “new civil war within a civil war”, according to the thinktank Crisis Group. In a chilling assessment of the recent bout of hostilities, Crisis Group added: “The fighting in Aden is not the first standoff between Saudi-backed and UAEbacked forces in Yemen but, if it continues, it could be the most destructive.
“If tensions in Aden cannot be eased, the risk is high that they will spread to other parts of the south.” Describing the fallout of the latest violence, the ICRC described perilous conditions for civilians and first aiders in the port city during the height of the fighting, as Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Monday to try to defuse friction between the two allies. According to Mathias Kempf, the ICRC’s head of mission in Aden, its staff were finally able to visit two hospitals in the city. “The escalation when it happened was very sudden,” Kempf told the Guardian from Aden, adding that staff were unable to move for several days as battles raged in many areas of the city. Although he said the situation had stabilised since Sunday, he described enormous difficulties for those injured in reaching medical facilities during the peak of the violence.
(The Guardian)