Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it delivered medical supplies on Sunday 17 January to areas besieged by Houthi militias in Yemen’s flashpoint Taez city for the first time in months.
The group also known as Doctors without Borders said two trucks “full of essential medical supplies” entered the southwestern city in the first such operation in five months.
The last time a “significant” shipment of medical supplies reached the city was in August, it said.
“We’re grateful that we managed to deliver the medical supplies to the hospitals,” said in a statement Karline Kleijer, MSF’s emergency manager for Yemen.
The Paris-based medical humanitarian organisation said treating the wounded and surgery had at times been suspended over the past five months due to lack of supplies.
“The checkpoints in combination with severe fighting in the area have severely hampered humanitarian access into this part of the city,” it said of areas besieged by the Shiite Huthi rebels.
The 600,000 residents of Taez have been in dire need as Houthis besiege the community defended by pro-government forces.
The situation has become so desperate that many residents have taken to treacherous mountain paths to bring in goods.
A Saudi aid dispatch consisting of 40 tons of medicine and food was dropped in the city on Wednesday.
The aid included medicines, medical equipment and dry food “to break the siege imposed on parts of Taez province,” Abdullah al-Rabeeah, director of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, told the Saudi Press Agency.
