Local Editor
Saudi-backed militants in Yemen supported by Riyadh’s aerial campaign are massing north and south of the Red Sea port of Hodeidah despite United Nations and aid groups warnings that a military operation there would put millions of civilians at risk.
Hodeidah port has been the entry point for 70 percent of Yemen's food supplies as well as humanitarian aid.
The militants reportedly amassed two recently-trained brigades - one in Midi about 230 km north of Hodeidah near the border with Saudi Arabia, and another outside al-Khoukha region, some 130 km south of the city.
Meanwhile Yemen’s army backed by the popular committees, which include the Houthi Ansarullah movement are preparing their defenses.
"Tens of thousands of our fighters from the tribes have answered the call of (the Houthi leader) Sayyed Abdel-Malek al-Houthi," the deputy spokesman of the forces fighting alongside Ansarullah, Aziz Rached, told Yemeni news agency Khabar on April 4.
Food deliveries have been cut by more than half with millions of people - including 2.1 million children - acutely malnourished, the United Nations says.
The Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing Yemeni since March 2015 with the aim of reinstating ousted president Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi might still be waiting for a go-ahead from its Western allies to launch the Hodeidah offensive.
It is still unclear whether the new Trump administration will approve such a move.
The Saudi campaign has killed over 12,000 civilians in the country while its aerial and naval blockade starve the population, with over 7 million Yemenis not knowing where their next meal is coming from.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
