Saudi-led coalition clears Red Cross flights into Yemen

Approval comes a day after aid agency voiced fears of dire humanitarian crisis caused by conflict.

Yemenis unload boxes of aid, supplied by a Kuwaiti medical organisation, at Al Sadaqa hospital in Aden on April 4, 2015, amid fierce fighting for control of the southern port city. Saleh Al Obeidi / AFPShow less

ADEN // The Saudi-led military coalition waging an air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen has given approval for the Red Cross to fly in medical supplies and aid workers, the aid agency said on Sunday.

“We have received permission from the coalition for two planes now, one carrying supplies and one with staff,” a Red Cross spokeswoman, Sitara Jabeen, said in Geneva.

She said the agency hoped the aircraft could land on Monday in the capital Sanaa.

Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri said the Red Cross had been due to send humanitarian aid to Sanaa on Sunday but had delayed the flight.

The coalition has conducted 11 days of airstrikes against the Houthi rebels and now controls the Yemen’s ports and air space. The Red Cross had appealed on Saturday for an immediate truce to allow civilians to seek water, food and medical assistance, describing the situation in the country as “dire”, while Russia presented a draft resolution to the UN security council calling for a humanitarian pause in the airstrikes to allow for delivery of aid and the evacuation of foreigners.

The coalition continued its campaign with night-time raids on Saturday against rebel positions and arms depots, particularly around Sanaa and Saada, the rebels’ northern stronghold of the Iran-backed rebels.

On Sunday, Saleh Al Sammad, a senior Houthi member and former adviser to President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, said the rebels were ready to sit down for peace talks as long as the airstrikes were halted and the negotiations were overseen by “non-aggressive” parties.

However, he ruled out a return for Mr Hadi, the country’s internationally recognised leader, who escaped to Saudi Arabia after the Houthi fighters advanced on his base of Aden last month.

“We still stand by our position on dialogue and we demand its continuation despite everything that has happened, on the basis of respect and acknowledging the other,” Mr Al Sammad told Reuters.

“We have no conditions except a halt to the aggression and sitting on the dialogue table within a specific time period ... and any international or regional parties that have no aggressive positions towards the Yemeni people can oversee the dialogue,” he said, without specifying who they might be.

Mr Al Sammad said he wanted the dialogue sessions aired to the Yemeni people “so that they can know who is the obstructer”.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said last Monday that the kingdom was ready for a political meeting of Yemeni parties, under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Five of the six GCC member states are part of the military coalition against the Houthis.

The Houthis made new gains in the southern port city on Sunday, advancing into the central district of Mualla, which was being defended by “popular committees” militiamen loyal to Mr Hadi, and capturing the provincial government headquarters.

Witnesses said the rebels bombarded residential areas, setting fire to several buildings and damaging others.

At least five civilians were killed and 14 wounded in the latest clashes, the head of Aden’s health department.

“There are children among the wounded,” he said.

Residents said dozens of families had fled their homes in Aden, the heart of which sits on an extinct volcano jutting out into the sea.

Coalition spokesman Gen Assiri accused the rebels of terrorising civilians.

The fighting between the Houthis and pro-Hadi forces is only one of many conflicts in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest nation, which also faces tribal unrest, a simmering separatist movement in the south, and a threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the east.

United States military personnel carrying out a covert drone war against AQAP were withdrawn last month after the Houthis advanced south towards Aden, close to the base out of which they operated.

In the eastern coastal town of Mukalla, tribesmen deployed on the streets, pushing Al Qaeda fighters out of much of the town just three days after the militants overran it, residents said.

The tribal fighters entered the town on Saturday, pledging to restore security after the militants broke into its jail on Thursday, freed a local Al Qaeda leader, ransacked banks and took over local government buildings.

France said its navy evacuated 63 people including French nationals from Aden on Sunday. Turkey said it evacuated 230 people, including non-Turkish citizens, by plane from Sanaa.

* Reuters and Agence France-Presse