25m 16m 10m 13m
population
rely on aid
do not get enough food
lack access to clean water a ground assault, hopes to restore Hadi to power. The embattled President fled Yemen last month for Saudi Arabia, which views the Houthis as proxies of Shiite Iran.
Sitara Jabeen, a Geneva spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that on Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition gave the organisation permission to fly two planes to Yemen carrying aid workers and 48 tonnes of medical supplies. But the Red Cross had not yet been able to charter aircraft that would travel to the war-torn country, she said.
Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, said, “We are engaging with international relief organisations to facilitate the provision of aid.” But he indicated that delivery of supplies by plane was unlikely, because Saudi air strikes had destroyed runways and “pretty much shut off Yemeni airports”.
The UN estimates more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting in the past two weeks. Meanwhile, supplies of food, fuel and water are dwindling, and government services such as healthcare are deteriorating rapidly.
Julien Harneis, the Yemen representative for Unicef, said shrinking supplies of fuel were threatening the ability of towns to run ambulance services and of
hospitals to refrigerate vaccines.
In addition, the lack of diesel fuel means pumps cannot draw well water for the chronically parched country. For years, experts have warned that Sanaa could be the first