UAE delivers 5,000 baskets of food to displaced Yemenis

A military offensive on the rebel-held port city of Al Hodeidah was imminent, according to reports

A Yemeni loyalist fighters, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates patrols the streets of central Aden on June 11, 2018.  Forces hostile to Huthi rebels have sent reinforcements to the port of Hodeida frontline, in the western part of Yemen, amid escalating tensions between loyalist and rebel fighters.  / AFP / Saleh Al-OBEIDI
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The Emirates Red Crescent delivered 5,000 baskets of food to displaced people in the Yemeni city of Aden, the Wam news agency reported.

Most of the beneficiaries were from the governorates of Taez and Al Hodeidah, which is under the control of the Houthi rebels.

Nagwa Fadhle, executive manager of Aden Micro-Finance Foundations, said hundreds of families were benefiting from the continuous flow of food aid.

“The ERC has been supporting the poor governorates and liberated governorates since the eruption of the war three years ago,” she said.

The latest Red Crescent aid is part of the UAE’s efforts to help ease the suffering of the Yemeni people, said Wam.

Meanwhile, according to reports on Tuesday, a military offensive on the port city of Al Hodeidah is imminent.

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Yemeni officials, who spoke to the Associated Press, said that the UN had pulled its international staff out of Al Hodeidah.

But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that the UN operations centre was still being manned by local staff.

For the past two weeks, Yemen government troops — backed by the Arab coalition that includes the UAE — have been closing in on Al Hodeidah, which is being used by the Houthis to smuggle in weapons provided by Iran.

Al Hodeidah, the country’s second-largest port, also provides a lifeline for food, medicine and other vital supplies.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemen war in 2015 at the request of the internationally-recognised government of Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

More than 22 million people in Yemen are in need of aid — 8.4 million of whom are on the brink of starvation — according to the UN.

The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people dead in the country that is already the Arab world's poorest nation.