Aden--The Red Cross warned Tuesday of a "catastrophic" situation in Yemen's main southern city Aden, as loyalist forces battled rebels in the streets backed by shelling by Saudi-led warships.
The Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels and their allies made a new push on a port in the central Mualla district of the city but were forced back by militia loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, witnesses said.
Naval forces of the Saudi-led coalition, which has carried out nearly two weeks of air strikes in support of Hadi's beleaguered government, shelled rebel positions across the city, they added.
Spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali, said that the humanitarian situation in all of Yemen is "very difficult...(with) naval, air and ground routes cut off."
She described the situation in Aden as "catastrophic to say the least."
"The war in Aden is on every street, in every corner... Many are unable to escape," she said.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the situation was "worsening by the day," with wounded people unable to get to hospital because of the fighting.
The MSF medical team in Aden had "not received large numbers of casualties over the past few days, not because there are no wounded people, but due to the difficulties faced in trying to reach a hospital," MSF Yemen representative Marie-Elisabeth Ingres said.
MSF has a team of 140 local staff and eight expatriates at a hospital in Aden.
"Our priority is to find a way to send a supporting medical team," Ingres told AFP, adding that a team is waiting in Djibouti "for a greenlight from the coalition."
AFP
