Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross unload from a plane Emergency medical aid at the international airport in Sanaa on April 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mohammed Huwais)
Fierce clashes in south Yemen killed at least 25 people overnight, followed by a fresh wave of pre-dawn air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition against positions of the Huthi Shiite rebels in Aden, the region's main city.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says its plane was carrying medical equipment required to treat the wounded after weeks of intense fighting across the country."The new cargo is 35.6 tonnes, of which 32 tonnes is medical aid and the rest water purifying equipment, electric power generators and tents," said ICRC spokeswoman Marie Claire Feghali.
The ICRC and UN each sent planes to Sanaa on Friday carrying 16 tonnes of medicine and equipment, the first aid supplies to reach the capital since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels late last month.
More than two weeks of heavy bombardment against opponents of exiled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and fighting between rival militias has prompted the UN to call for a freeze in the violence.
UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Johannes Van Der Klaauw, told reporters in Geneva that an "immediate humanitarian pause in this conflict" was desperately needed.
He insisted that the aid delivered to date was far from sufficient.
"The situation in Aden is extremely, extremely preoccupying if not catastrophic," he said, warning that Yemen's second largest city had fallen prey to "urban warfare" and "uncontrollable militias".
The World Health Organization says nearly 650 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured in the recent escalation in violence.
- Fighting rages in south -
Street fighting in Aden between the Huthis and Hadi loyalists cost the lives of at least seven combatants in a 12-hour period overnight Friday, said a health official in the city.
Among them were "an elderly woman, a man and a child killed by snipers" from the rebel forces, the official said.
A tank shell fired by pro-government militias known as "Popular Committees" killed six Huthi fighters at Khor Maksar, a district of Aden held by the Shiite rebels, according to a military source.
Elsewhere, Sunni tribesmen who support Hadi ambushed and killed 12 rebels on the road between Taez to Lahj as they made their way to Aden, military sources said.
The fighting has been so fierce in south Yemen that many civilians have fled across the Gulf of Aden, with the UN's refugee agency reporting at least 900 Yemenis arriving in the Horn of Africa in the past 10 days.
Officials in Somalia said Saturday that more than 400 Somali refugees, many of them women, children and elderly, have returned to their war-torn home country as security in Yemen evaporates.
Yemen, strategically located near key shipping routes and bordering oil-rich Saudi Arabia, was plunged into chaos last year when the Huthis seized Sanaa, later forcing Hadi to flee to Aden and then Riyadh.
The Saudi-led coalition says it will continue its raids on Yemen until the Iran-backed Huthis retreat to their northern mountain stronghold.
Help has begun trickling into Sanaa and Aden but aid agencies have warned that much more is needed to address the humanitarian situation in Yemen, already one of the poorest countries in the region.
The ICRC said had received reports of aid workers being attacked in the southern port of Aden
"All those who are wounded and sick are entitled to treatment, and medical personnel must be allowed to work without fear," ICRC Yemen team leader Cedric Schweizer in a statement.
As well as the tribesmen, the Huthis have at times met fierce resistance from militants from Al-Qaeda, whose Yemeni wing is considered its most dangerous by the United States.
