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ADEN (Yemen) – Street battles took place Sunday in the residential neighborhoods of the port city of Hodeida in Yemen, forcing some staff members Medical fleeing the largest hospital, while Houthi insurgents lined up with Iran were trying to repel forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
The city on the Red Sea is an entry point for most food and relief supplies in the country. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have warned that a large-scale badault on Hodeida could trigger a famine in the state of the already impoverished Arabian Peninsula, which imports 90% of its food, according to the United Nations
Residents said they saw the bodies of seven civilians killed in clashes in the southern suburbs, both camps using mortar shells. – aviation guns and badault rifles in combat. According to Sarah Alzawqari, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sarah Alzawqari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the fighting, which began to intensify in June, is still going strong. have not yet reached the city center.
The coalition renewed its offensive against Hodeida as Western allies, including the United States, called for a ceasefire to support the UN's efforts to end the nearly four-year war that killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the country to the brink of starvation. The Houthis control a large part of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
Medical sources at al-Thawra hospital told Reuters that several staff members and patients who were able to move had fled the complex. It was not clear right away how many patients were staying inside. According to the ICRC, around 25 to 30 people who can not be moved are in the intensive care unit of the hospital.
"The Houthis are strengthening their positions near the hospital and this is what scares people," said one of them. A staff member.
The hospital spokesman, Khaled Attiyah, told Reuters that doctors and nurses were continuing their activities in departments such as the intensive care unit, the burns unit and the emergency department. the panic".
The food and supplies we need, but if a party gets in or uses it for military purposes, it will be a huge and dangerous problem for the population, said Alzawqari.
Last week, human rights groups said that the Houthis had attacked the May 22 Hospital in the eastern suburbs of the city and posted armed men on the roof, endangering doctors and patients
More than two dozen senior officials of the Obama administration, including former national security advisor Susan Rice, and the former director of The CIA, John B rennan, on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to stop all support for the war.
On a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday, State Secretary Mike Pompeo reiterated Washington's call for "the cessation of hostilities and to all parties have to sit at the table to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict, "said the State Department.
Last month, the chief of humanitarian action at the United Nations declared that "there is a clear and immediate danger of a great and great famine that will invade Yemen. "
The World Food Program said that its cargo ships could still call at the port of Hodeida, but that it did not have access to silos in which grain is stored. The pro-coalition forces on Saturday took control of Red Sea Mills, a major grain facility south of the port, which contains about 51,000 tonnes of wheat, said a UN humanitarian group.
"Sixty shells have fallen into the compound since the end of the clashes," said Ali Reza Qureshi, deputy director of WFP in Yemen, "
" production will resume in the next two weeks, with 21,000 tonnes per month. "We have to import wheat flour," he told Reuters.
WFP announced last week its intention to double its food aid program in Yemen, with the aim of reaching up to 14 million people "in order to avoid mbad starvation.
The coalition declared that taking control of Hodeida would break the Houthis by cutting off their main source of supply and would force the group to the negotiating table to end the conflict, considered a war by power of attorney between Riyadh and Iran. [19659007] The alliance, which is based on the West's weapons and intelligence services intervened in the Yemeni war in 2015 to re-establish the internationally recognized government that was overthrown by the Houthi movement, which controls the Yemen's most populated areas, including the capital Sanaa.
U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said he hoped to convene new peace talks by the end of the year after the failure of the latest round of consultations in September [[] 19659027] The UN does not have an updated estimate of the number of casualties in Yemen. She said in August 2016 that at least 10,000 people had been killed according to the medical centers.
Rachel Elbaum has contributed.
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