Local Editor

The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] said that Yemen is facing a catastrophic situation three months after a Saudi-led coalition began an intense aerial aggression.

The head of the ICRC’s delegation in Yemen, Antoine Grand, told VOA that an embargo imposed by the Saudi-led coalition targeting imports of fuel and other goods is having a devastating impact on the population.

He said that over the past three months, Yemen has received only 11 percent of the amount of fuel it once imported and only 15 percent of other essential commodities.

"[There is] a quite catastrophic situation we are facing today after three months of hostilities," Grand told a UN briefing in Switzerland’s Geneva by telephone from Sana’a.

"It’s more than one million people displaced, 3,000 killed, shortage of fuel, basic public services - health, water, sanitation - that are collapsing, one city after another that are collapsing," he said.

Aid agencies also say that the humanitarian consequences of this relentless aggression are severe, with more than 21 million people throughout Yemen in need of food and other relief. 

The ICRC reports health, water and other basic public services have collapsed as well.