Local Editor
As forces of the Saudi-led military coalition prepare for an assult on the main Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, aid agencies fear a major battle that will also shut down a vital lifeline for millions of hungry civilians.
Senior aid officials urged Western powers providing arms and intelligence to the coalition to push their allies to reconvene U.N. talks with the Houthi Ansarullah movement to avoid a bloodbath and end the three-year war.
A coalition spokesman said on Tuesday that forces backed by the coalition were 20 km (12 miles) from the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah, but did not specify whether there were plans for an assault to seize the Red Sea port, long a key target.
“The coalition ground forces are now at the doorstep of this heavily-fortified, heavily-mined port city,” Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters. “Thousands of civilians are fleeing from the outskirts of Hodeidah which is now a battle zone.”
“We cannot have war in Hodeidah, it would be like war in Rotterdam or Antwerp, these are comparable cities in Europe.”
Troops from the United Arab Emirates and allied militias are believed to be amassing south of the city, another aid official said, declining to be named.
“Hodeidah, the so-called big battle, has been looming now for 18 months with ups and downs,” Robert Mardini, Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Reuters.
“It’s a densely-populated area where any military scenario will risk coming at a huge human cost.”
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
