Local Editor

The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] said that civilians struggling to survive fighting and Saudi-led air strikes in the southern port city of Aden in Yemen are also facing shrinking supplies of food and fuel.

Hunger and disease are threatening the 1 million residents of Aden, senior official from ICRC Bertrand Lamon, said in Switzerland’s Geneva.

"The general level of food stocks in Aden has been dramatically reduced because of the lesser volume of imports by sea and difficulty to transport items by road from [the capital] Sanaa," the outgoing head of the ICRC’s delegation in Aden said. 

"People have restricted mobility because of the conflict and the front lines, they have no car, no resources to travel. So it makes people more vulnerable and dependent on external aid," he added late on Wednesday.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been bombing Yemen for three months since March.

Saudi Arabia has imposed a near total blockade on a country heavily reliant on imports.

Nationwide fuel shortages have spread disease and suffering in arid Yemen, where access to water usually depends on fuel -powered pumps and over 20 million people - 80 percent of the population - needs some form of aid, according to the United Nations [UN].

The UN has quoted Aden health officials as saying that 8,000 people had contracted dengue fever in the city since the crisis began in March, including 590 who died from the disease.

As calls by the UN and aid groups for an immediate ceasefire have gone unheeded, the estimated number of 2,800 people killed nationwide in the fighting and Saudi-led air strikes looks set to rise.

"If the conflict gains in intensity we will definitely have a mass casualties scenario where health facilities will be overwhelmed," Lamon said.