[24/07/2017 03:56]

Taiz - Saba
The president of the ICRC Peter Maurer described the situation in Taiz is bad and catastrophic upon his landmark visit to the war-torn Yemeni city.

Speaking at a press conference Monday afternoon, Maurer said the situation is terrible mainly in some aspects like public health, which required multiplying the budget to face these hard circumstances.

He said that the ICRC is implementing several programs in Yemen and that the organization's operations in Yemen are the second largest in the world, an indicator of the magnitude of the humanitarian hardship.

Maurer said some parties are working to detriment the ICRC's function and that business agendas are not mere words but actions on the ground.

He said his first visit was in 2015 and this time he has come to see enormous war damage and impact on the hospitals and personnel as a result of the strikes.

He said that his next leg, after Aden and Taiz is Sana'a and that Yemen is an important target for the ICRC. Maurer said the ICRC has decided to increase the response in support of the anti-cholera programs. He said that his meetings aim at urging all parties to abide by the international law and the bad humanitarian situations cannot go on like that.

In his remarks in the press conference, the deputy governor of Taiz Aref Jamal spoke said the ICRC visited several hospitals and neighborhoods largely devastated by the Saleh-Houthi militias' shelling of the city. "We hope that they (the ICRC mission) report the suffering of Taiz to the international community.

The targeting of civilians their consequent suffering, the shelling on hospitals, the plight of wounded and maimed children, women and others as a result of the rebel militias' massive shelling on Taiz," he said.

The deputy governor called on the international community to press the militias into halting their aggressions and lifting the two-year-long siege around the city and to supply food and medicines to the city's residents, enduring the extra hardship of epidemics.

The president of the ICRC arrived in Yemen Sunday as the cholera outbreak is spreading at an alarming levels.

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