Aid agencies warn about escalation of Yemen crisis

Amid continued Saudi aerial aggression against Yemen, aid agencies have warned about the escalation of humanitarian crisis, including food shortages, in the already-impoverished country.

Speaking of the dire situation in the southwestern city of Aden, Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, the Yemen representative of Doctors without Borders (MSF), said on Monday, “Shops are closed. We have a problem of food.”

Metaz al-Maisuri, an activist residing in Aden, also said basic services have stopped and there has been a “mass exodus” of civilians from the city.

Aid workers said the capital, Sana’a, is also suffering, as airstrikes hit the city and supplies dwindle.

“There is a food and water shortage. People are unable to move,” said Marie Claire Feghali, the Red Cross spokeswoman in Yemen.

Smoke rises from the Faj Attan Hill area in Sana’a, Yemen, following a purported airstrike, April 7, 2015. © AFP
Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen started on March 26, without a United Nations mandate, in a bid to restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes van der Klaauw has warned that the current crisis triggered following the Saudi aggression against the country is among the largest in the world.

He has said 16 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs.

Yemeni children play outside a boarding facility run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Obock, a small port in Djibouti. © AFP
‘Saudi stops at nothing’

Also on Monday, Colonel Sharaf Luqman, Yemen’s armed forces and Popular Committees spokesman, said in a press conference that civilians and Yemeni infrastructure have been the target of the Saudi aggression, adding, “Saudi Arabia is the international supporter of terrorism.”

In excess of 2,500 civilians have been killed in the Saudi aggression, he said, adding that Saudi air raids are hitting residential buildings. Saudi Arabia is “targeting everything” in Yemen, Luqman added.