ICRC expatriate personnel recently managed to return to Sa'ada and join forces with the staff permanently based there. This has enabled the ICRC to better pinpoint needs and to respond accordingly.

The ICRC has sent international staff who left the north of the country in September back to Sa'ada, where they are joining 40 staff members who put their lives at risk by staying in the area throughout the conflict to carry on with their humanitarian work.

Joint ICRC and Yemen Red Crescent teams have visited camps for displaced people (IDPs) and areas such as Sa'ada where fighting had taken place. Among the staff who went back to Sa'ada are a water engineer and a health specialist who are currently assessing needs. According to their reports, there is widespread destruction in Sa'ada's old city, including to the water system.

The ICRC's primary concern now in areas affected by the fighting is to make sure that displaced people and returnees as well as residents are provided with shelter, and to restore proper water and sanitation services. The organization also sees a huge need for expanded medical and other health-related services, in particular at the prosthetic/orthotic centre. The scale of these and other requirements is likely to become clearer as people become able to move around more easily.

The ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent are determined to carry on with their work helping conflict victims in the north of the country and to expand their activities as the situation allows. Over the past six months they have brought water, food, shelter and health care to at least 150,000 residents and displaced people.

Supplying clean water

The ICRC is currently:

supplying 66 water points in Sa'ada town with nearly 400,000 litres of water per day, mostly by truck. Also in Sa'ada, it is providing diesel fuel to run pumps for the local network serving 80,000 people. It is building a further six water points with a total capacity of 30,000 litres and a new 300,000-litre concrete water storage tank;

providing diesel fuel together with the Yemen Red Crescent in Al Mahader and Al Azgool to pump water to some 17,500 people;

providing drinking water, sanitation and tents in coordination with the Yemen Red Crescent for 23,000 displaced people in Sam, Al Ehsa'a, Al Gabanah, Mandabah, Al Shat and Bugalat camps in Sa'ada governorate;

providing some 500 tents through the Yemen Red Crescent for people returning to Al Oqab.

Providing food and other essential items

In March the ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent distributed household essentials such as blankets, hygiene items and soap to nearly 8,000 displaced people in and around Sa'ada town. They also distributed blankets in Al Jabana camp for displaced people, food to displaced people in Damaj, in Al Safra district, and food and other items to the nearly 3,000 residents of Al Oqab, a village on the outskirts of Sa'ada hard hit by the fighting.

Cooperation with the Yemen Red Crescent Society

Over the past three weeks, the ICRC has stepped up its support for the Sa'ada chapter of the Yemen Red Crescent by providing a generator and emergency first-aid kits. =A9ICRC/A. Qully

Al Oqab, Sa'ada governorate, Yemen. Yemen Red Crescent and ICRC distribute essential household items to returnees.

Al Oqab, Sa'ada governorate, Yemen. Yemen Red Crescent and ICRC distribute essential household items to returnees. =A9ICRC/A. Qully =A9ICRC/A. Qully

Al Oqab, Sa'ada governorate, Yemen. Yemen Red Crescent and ICRC distribute essential household items to returnees.

Al Oqab, Sa'ada governorate, Yemen. Yemen Red Crescent and ICRC distribute essential household items to returnees. =A9ICRC/A. Qully