Aid group struggles to deliver to Yemen as civilians cut off in Aden

An international aid group is struggling to deliver emergency supplies to Yemen, despite securing agreement for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has managed to get approval from the Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes, known as Decisive Storm, for a humanitarian pause to allow aid to be delivered.

However, international airlines have halted their flights over Yemen, as airstrikes on the capital Sanaa continue and fighting intensifies in the southern port city of Aden.

“We have permission from the coalition but there are fewer and fewer airlines who are either allowed or willing to fly into Yemen now,” Sitara Jabeen, an ICRC spokesperson, told Middle East Eye on Monday.

The Yemeni national airline, which the group had hoped to use for an airdrop, has suspended all flights into and out of Yemen until further notice.

The ICRC had issued an urgent call on Saturday for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting in Yemen, asking that all air, sea and land routes be opened for at least 24 hours to allow aid to be delivered to people on the ground.

However, Saudi Arabia, which is leading a campaign of airstrikes in the country, said it would allow aid in “when we are able to set conditions [so] that this aid will benefit the population”.

“We don’t want to supply the militias,” said Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri, spokesperson for the operation, on Sunday.

The ICRC hope to land two planes, one carrying supplies and the other aid workers, in Sanaa “as soon as possible”.

The Saudi-led coalition is now in control of Yemen’s airspace.

Three ICRC workers have been killed while working in Yemen in the past week.

The killings, which occurred while all three men were working wearing their ICRC uniforms, were described by the programme’s Middle East director as “a very worrying trend and a tragic loss”.

The ICRC also plans to bring in aid supplies by boat to the southern port city of Aden, where the fighting remains severe.

Aden residents fearful of Houthi snipers, militia shelling

Dozens of people were killed during street battles in the city, as Houthi militiamen struggled to gain control of the strategic port.

Up to 36 Houthi militiamen and five civilians were killed, according to a security source who spoke to Sky News Arabia.

An ambulance worker in the city told Reuters that bodies of the dead and injured were lying in the streets, but that they could not approach because “Houthi snipers are stationed on the tops of buildings”.

Many living in Aden alleged that Houthi militia had been shelling residential areas "at random" as the fight for the city intensified.

Houthi sources, meanwhile, said that Egyptian warships stationed just outside the port city had shelled Aden up to 16 times on Sunday, leading to civilian casualties. Neither of these reports has been independently verified.

Residents of the city warned that the city was becoming increasingly cut off due to the intensity of the fighting – some residential areas have been without power for days, and water supplies are cut off in the city centre.

The Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthi militia had targeted Aden's infrastructure and "terrorized civilians".