Save the Children forced to close schools and clinics as fighting rages in Aden

Save the Children said its office was forced to close due to intense fighting, with the delivery of health, water and nutrition supplies cancelled.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

30 January, 2018

Violence in Aden has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185. [Getty]

Deadly fighting in Yemen's Aden over the past 48 hours has disrupted critical aid supplies for children in the city, a British charity said on Tuesday.

Save the Children said its office was forced to close due to intense fighting, with the delivery of health and nutrition supplies cancelled.

Mobile health clinics in Aden and Lahj have also been temporarily shuttered, while all schools and school-related activities have been suspended.

The fighting has also brought vital water and sanitation activities to a halt in the Tur-Albaha district.

"The fighting in Aden makes it impossible for us to carry out our life-saving work. Our staff are forced to shelter at home and in bunkers while gun battles rage outside," Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children's Yemen Country Director, said.

"Yemen's children have suffered enough. They're dying every day from preventable causes like hunger, and diseases like cholera and diphtheria. Many have lost hope for a better future after three years of brutal war."

The fighting in Aden first erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by southern separatists for the government to resign expired.

The violence has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"The warring parties have a moral obligation to end the conflict and the only way forward is a political, not a military, solution," Kirolos said.

"Enough is enough. How many more innocent children must have their lives destroyed before the world takes notice?"

Yemen's war has left over 10,000 civilians dead and two million displaced, with the United Nations saying Yemen is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.