Yemeni port a ‘ghost city’ after rebels kill hundreds

FIERCE FIGHTING has turned the Yemeni port of Aden into a “ghost city”, it was claimed last night.

With conflict escalating in many parts of the country, aid agencies say at least 540 people have been killed and more than 100,000 people have been displaced since Shia Houthi rebels clashed with forces loyal to the government last month.

Many of the victims are children, claims the United Nations’s children’s agency Unicef, with at least 74 children known to have been killed and 44 children maimed since fighting intensified two weeks ago.

The battle for the strategic port of Aden has seen fighting there escalate in recent days, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that local hospitals are struggling to cope.

Robert Ghosen, head of the ICRC, told the BBC that attempts have been made to send two aircraft loaded with supplies to the Aden area without success.

“We are seeing a lot of people arriving dead at the hospital or dying in the hospitals,” he said. “The hospitals don’t have the right supplies and the right staff.

“People are nowhere to be seen, they are hiding. The economy has completely stopped. The city is full of armed people from different groups fighting.

“This is a big city and nothing is functional.”

Unicef has already expressed concerns about the number of children affected by the conflict and say estimates of the number killed are conservative.

“Children are paying an intolerable price for this conflict,” said Unicef Yemen representative Julien Harneis, speaking from the Jordanian capital Amman.

“They are being killed, maimed and forced to flee their homes, their health threatened and their education interrupted.

“These children should be immediately afforded special respect and protection by all parties to the conflict, in line with international humanitarian law.”

Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia last month as the rebels pushed south from the capital, Sanaa, with the aim of replacing his government in the country.

A Saudi-led coalition, which supports Mr Hadi, has been targeting the Houthis and their allies to stop their advance on Aden, and has been shelling Yemen’s second-largest city in recent days.

However, f ighting has continued, prompting calls from the ICRC for a 24-hour ceasefire.

Picture: AP. A Pakistani boy evacuated from Yemen is kissed by his father upon his arrival at the port of Karachi in Pakistan.