ABU DHABI // The Emirates Red Crescent on Sunday announced plans to ensure assistance reaches all familiies in Aden and to expand its reach to other Yemeni provinces as well.
The ERC has formed a commission of residents to conduct field surveys and construct a database of the eight districts of Aden province to determine the actual needs of each family.
The database is in preparation for the first phase of distribution of relief to everyone.
Hassan Al Jesmi, ERC’s Director in Yemen, said collection of data such as number of family members, their ages and gender, and those with special needs, would take several months but relief efforts would begin while it is in progress.
The second phase of the relief plan will focus on healthcare aid, especially providing children’s needs such as milk, and women’s health care.
Mr Al Jesmi said the ERC was looking for permanent offices in Aden, and would also recruit Yemenis on to its team, which is currently entirely Emirati.
The ERC announcement came as another UAE relief ship arrived in Aden with 3,000 tonnes of food and aid supplies.
The shipment, sent by the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, is one of many daily urgent relief efforts being implemented by UAE organisations.
The aid programmes are being implemented on the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the ERC Board.
Fahad Abdul Rahman bin Sultan, ERC deputy secretary general, said health and education projects would be given top priority.
He said 153 schools and kindergartens would be given supplies to prepare for the coming school year. The ERC will also support universities and colleges at a later stage.
Meanwhile, a contingent of ground forces from the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels pushed into the oil-rich Marib province, witnesses said.
The coalition is supporting fighters loyal to President Abrabu Mansur Hadi, who was forced into exile in Saudi Arabia after the Iran-backed rebels advanced on Aden in March.
Saleh Al Anjaf, chief of the Marib Tribes Alliance, which is also fighting the Houthis and their allies, said dozens of armoured vehicles, tanks and other heavy equipment arrived in the central Marib region on Saturday after crossing the border point from Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Al Sharif, a resident, said he saw “huge forces” entering Marib.
Tribal leader Al Anjaf said the new forces would play an important role in defeating the rebels.
In July, after months of Saudi-led air strikes, popular resistance militias allied to Mr Hadi, boosted by loyalist fighters trained by the UAE and Saudi Arabia and hundreds of Emirati soldiers, started to beat back the Houthis and their allies.
The UAE also supplied the Southern Resistance with modern military vehicles and air drops of ammunition, kickstarting a counteroffensive that has driven the Houthis from Yemen’s southern provinces.
UAE troops were in the deployment in Marib, Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat reported on Sunday, citing Yemeni sources.
Yemeni security officials close to pro-government forces also reported the bombing rebel positions near the Bab Al Mandeb Strait by the coalition on Sunday.
The conflict has killed more than 1,950 civilians, wounded more than 23,000 people and pushed the already impoverished nation to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
* Wam, Bloomberg and Associated Press
