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Yemen loyalists take Hodeida’s main hospital: officials
ADEN, Nov 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Pro-government forces fighting Huthi rebels
in Yemen have taken the main hospital in the strategic Red Sea port city of
Hodeida, government military officials said Saturday.
The May 22 Hospital lies in the east of the rebel-held city, a key aid
conduit that is the target of a renewed offensive by the Saudi and Emirati-
backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
On Thursday, loyalist forces backed by Saudi air strikes entered the city
for the first time, pushing towards the port and using bulldozers to remove
concrete road blocks installed by the rebels.
Officials said pro-government forces took over the hospital on Friday
evening.
Amnesty International had accused the Huthis on Thursday of “deliberate
militarisation” of the facility after they stationed fighters on its roof.
A medical source told AFP on Wednesday that the rebels had forced staff out
of the hospital and set up sniper positions.
Nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s commercial imports and practically all UN-
supervised humanitarian aid pass through Hodeida’s port.
The Huthis have controlled Hodeida since 2014 when they overran the capital
Sanaa and swept though much of the rest of the country, triggering an
intervention by the Saudi-led coalition the following year and a devastating
war of attrition.
The rebels have since been driven out of virtually all of the south and
much of the Red Sea coast.
Nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the conflict since 2015,
according to the World Health Organization. Human rights groups say the real
death toll may be five times higher.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1631 hrs