Local Editor

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] began a three day visit to Yemen on Saturday to assess the dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out airstrikes against Yemen since March. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the UN.

ICRC’s head, Peter Mauer, flew into Yemen’s capital of Sanaa where he was welcomed by Houthi revolutionary officials. 

Mauer is to hold talks with the Houthi revolutionaries and their allies from the General People’s Congress party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The ICRC said in a statement ahead of the visit that his trip would focus on the "dire humanitarian situation" in Yemen and that he would hold talks with unidentified "leading officials".

Mauer also said in a statement ahead of his visit that, "The human cost of this conflict is such that no family in Yemen today has been left unaffected".

"We are particularly concerned about attacks on medical facilities and personnel. Moreover, deliveries of food, water and medicine must be facilitated not hampered," he added.

The ICRC says that 1.3 million Yemenis have been displaced by the conflict. 

Saudi Arabia began its US-led military aggression against the country on March 26 - without a United [UN] Nation mandate - in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Saudi Arabia, and to undermine Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement which is currently responding to the attacks on the country.