Saudis Block Humanitarian Aid Shipments to Yemen

UN, Red Cross Alarmed by Growing Civilian Toll

by Jason Ditz, 

One day after Saudi warplanes killed scores of civilians in an attack on a refugee camp in Yemen, the Red Cross has confirmed that the Saudi military is now preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa.

The Red Cross had to land a flight full of medical aid in Djibouti after being informed by the Saudis that they don’t have permission to deliver the aid to Yemen, which Saudi Arabia began attacking last week.

Red Cross officials say they are still trying to negotiate permission to deliver medical aid to the war-torn country, and theyexpressed growing alarm at the number of civilians being killedand wounded in the Saudi attacks.

The Saudis have thus far appeared ambivalent about the civilian death toll, either shrugging it off as the lies of Yemen’s Shi’ite Houthis, or just insisting their military intervention is being done on behalf of the Yemeni people, at least the ones who survive it.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/31/saudis-block-humanitarian-aid-shipments-to-yemen/