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Red Cross evacuates staff from Aden

August 25, 2015

ICRC had been one of the few still operating in southern Yemen providing medical supplies and care. The decision follows brazen robbery by unknown gunmen.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GLIM
Symbolbild Rotes Kreuz in Aden, Jemen
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Al-Obeidi

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday it had temporarily closed down in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden after unidentified militants raided its office.

Adnan Hizam, the organization's spokesman in Yemen, said the move would "affect the Red Cross' activities in Aden and other southern provinces."

Some 14 international staff members had been evacuated from Aden and surrounding provinces after unidentified assailants robbed the headquarters Monday of cash, equipment and cars but had left personnel physically unharmed.

"Our personnel in Aden had previously come under several attacks," Hizam said without offering details. "We have suspended our activity in Aden due to the security situation but will soon return to work."

Residents in Aden say policemen and government army units have been largely absent from city streets after a Saudi-led military force recently retook the city from Iran-backed Shiite rebels.

Yemen's multifaceted civil war pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against an array of forces including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants as well as troops loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, currently in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Civilian areas have been devastated with the UN warning of famine if the fighting doesn't subside.

Iran offers dialogue

Iran's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's support for militants and airstrikes could increase terrorism risks in the region, adding however that Iran was ready to cooperate with Riyadh on the matter, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"The continuation of resorting to force against Yemen will not end the country's crisis, rather it risks spreading the crisis, and especially increasing the growth of terrorism," Hossein Amir Abdollahian said. "We welcome dialogue and collaboration with Saudi Arabia in order to restore peace, security and welfare in the region," he said, adding that a political solution and broad-based agreement was the only way to end the crisis in Yemen.

Bloodshed continues

Smoke billows following air-strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on a weapons depot at a military airport, currently controlled by Yemeni Shiite Huthi rebels, in the capital Sanaa on August 20, 2015.
Yemen has been wracked by conflict since March, when the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels as they advanced on the main southern city of Aden, after seizing the capital in September.Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Huwais

Meanwhile, at least 40 people have been killed in more than 24 hours of Saudi-led coalition air strikes and fighting in Yemen's central province of Baida, pro-government military sources told the AFP news agency Tuesday.

The fighting and air raids in Mukayris, a town seen as a gateway to southern provinces recently recaptured by pro-government forces, left 19 rebels, 15 loyalists and six civilians dead, the sources told AFP.

Fighting continued in other provinces but news agencies said they could independently confirm casualty figures offered by combatants.

jar/jil (AFP, Reuters, AP)