Emirati Red Crescent team attacked in Yemen

MENA

Published: 2020-11-18 15:26

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 14:02


Emirati Red Crescent team attacked in Yemen
Emirati Red Crescent team attacked in Yemen

An Emirati Red Crescent team was attacked with firearms in Taiz, in war-torn southwestern Yemen, according to authorities Wednesday. No casualties were reported.

The UAE has been a member of a Saudi-led military coalition in the impoverished country since 2015, in support of the internationally recognized government in its war against the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels.

The Red Crescent Authority expressed on Twitter its "deep condemnation and deep regret of the cowardly terrorist act due to the exposure of its medical staff to a shooting attack," stressing that "the targeting of humanitarian workers represents a major violation of international norms, treaties and covenants."

In turn, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the attack.

It said in a statement on its website that it "strongly condemns the cowardly terrorist attack on the medical staff of the mobile health care clinics of the Emirates Red Crescent in the Yemeni city of Taiz, through a shooting attack."

And she affirmed "its strong condemnation of these criminal acts, and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism aimed at destabilizing security and stability and inconsistent with religious and humanitarian values and principles."

The Houthis have besieged the city of Taiz since 2015 from the north, east and west.

The war has killed tens of thousands, most of them civilians, and resulted in what the United Nations described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

About 3.3 million people have been displaced from their homes, while 24.1 million Yemenis, or more than 80 percent of the population, need help, according to the UN agency.