The Guardian - 15.08.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:29 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 18:54 cYanmaGentaYellowb

Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •

‘Teach India a lesson’ 29

Pakistan’s rhetoric on

Kashmir heats up

Page 31

Point Comfort

The site that ushered

in an era of US slavery

Page 33

‘Scores killed’ in Yemen as UAE-backed

fi ghters seize strategic areas of Aden

Peter Beaumont

Scores of people were killed and hun-

dreds wounded during recent fi ghting

in Yemen’s main port of Aden, human-

itarian workers on the ground said

yesterday, as they warned that any

further clashes would be devastating

for civilians.

Large parts of the city were left

without electricity and water over

the weekend when southern sepa-

ratists – trained by the United Arab

Emirates – seized strategic locations

from government forces backed by

Saudi Arabia, the head of mission

for the International Committee of

the Red Cross (ICRC) in Aden told the

Guardian.

Mathias Kempf described perilous

conditions for civilians and fi rst aid

providers in the port city during the

height of the fi ghting between forces

backed by the erstwhile Gulf allies in

the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

“The escalation when it happened

was very sudden,” Kempf said from

Aden, adding that staff were unable to

move for several days as battles raged

in many areas of the city.

Although he said the situation had

stabilised since Sunday, those injured

had faced enormous diffi culties in

reaching medical facilities during the

peak of the violence.

“Movement was almost impossible

with shooting going on in many parts

of town – with all calibres of weapons

• and ambulances could not move,” he
  said. “Because of that, the hospitals
  did not get an infl ux until the fi ghting
  started to die down.”
  The clashes have further compli-
  cated what is already the world’s worst
  humanitarian catastrophe, threat-
  ening a “new civil war within a civil
  war” , according to the thinktank Cri-
  sis Group.

In a chilling assessment of the

recent bout of hostilities, it said:

“The fi ghting in Aden is not the fi rst

standoff between Saudi-backed and

UAE-backed forces in Yemen but,

if it continues, it could be the most

destructive.

“If tensions in Aden cannot be

eased, the risk is high that they will

spread to other parts of the south.”

Tamuna Sabadze, deputy director

of operations for the International

Rescue Committee in Aden, said

fi ghters allied with the Southern Tran-

sitional Council now controlled most

of the city.

“Their forces control the key parts

of Aden – all the military camps and the

presidential palace, and they already

controlled the airport,” she said, add-

ing that only a small part of the city

was now controlled by Saudi-backed

government forces.

The situation had become more

“dynamic and unpredictable”,

Sabadze added. “From a humanitarian

perspective that will have implications

on everything from the importation of

humanitarian supplies to dealing with

diff erent ministries to facilitate work.

Any further fi ghting and exacerbation

between the warring parties would be

devastating for Yemen.”

A ccording to the UN, 22.2 million

people in Yemen need some kind of

assistance, including about 8.4 million

who are at risk of starvation.

The events seemed to suggest

serious emerging faultlines in the

Saudi-led coalition after more than

four years’ fi ghting for the interna-

tionally recognised government of

Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the

Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

The Houthis control Yemen’s capi-

tal, Sana’a, and most populous areas.

Hadi is based in Saudi Arabia, but his

government, troops and allied parties

ran Aden until the separatists, who

have a rival agenda, overran govern-

ment bases at the weekend.

Analysts have increasingly begun to

paint the Saudi-led intervention as an

escalating “fi asco” for the kingdom’s

crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Writing on the Al-Monitor website,

Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Insti-

tution described the confrontation in

Aden as the “latest in a long stream of

strategic blunders by the Saudi leader-

ship”. “The Saudi-backed government

... has lost its capital, further under-

mining its shaky claims to legitimacy,”

Riedel wrote.

“The Saudis’ closest ally, the United

Arab Emirates, was partially respon-

sible for the secessionists’ gains. The

Houthis and Iran are the strategic

winners.”

‘Movement was

impossible, with

shooting going on

in many parts of

town. Ambulances

could not move’

Mathias Kempf

Red Cross

Greece fi ghts

wildfi res

A woman tries

to save her

goat as a forest

fi re rages in

the village of

Makrimalli

on Greece’s

second-

largest island,

Evia, where

hundreds

of villagers

have been

evacuated.

Four

fi re fi ghting

planes from

Croatia and

Italy were

deployed

after Greece

requested EU

assistance.

PHOTOGRAPH: ANGELOS

TZORTZINIS/AFP/GETTY

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