Iran to Dispatch 2nd Aid Ship to Yemen
May 23, 2015 - 17:37


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran is going to send a large consignment of humanitarian
supplies for the people of Yemen with a cargo ship as the country's first
aid ship has now docked in Djibouti.

According to Shahaboddin Mohammadi Araqi, the Iranian Red Crescent Society's
deputy director for international and humanitarian affairs, the second ship
will be loaded with 12,000 tons of humanitarian supplies, including
foodstuff, for war-hit Yemenis.

It will take one week to load the humanitarian supplies on the ship, he
said, but added that a precise date for dispatching the cargo ship has not
been set yet.

Plans for delivering the new consignment were made public after Iran's first
ship, carrying 2500 tons of humanitarian aid, started unloading its cargo in
Djibouti on Saturday following coordination with the World Food Program
(WFP) for sending the goods to Yemen.

Iran's Nejat (Rescue) ship set sail on May 11 to deliver the consignment of
foodstuff and medicine to the war-hit people of Yemen, who are under a siege
imposed by a Saudi-led coalition.

On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly
air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore
power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally
of Riyadh.

According to Yemen's Freedom House Foundation, the Saudi airstrikes have
claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Yemeni people so far while more than 7,000
others have been wounded, most of them civilians.

Meantime, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
revealed that 2,453 civilians have been injured, among whom 130 were women
and 234 children.

Also, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched an 84
million US dollars appeal to address some of the prevalent humanitarian
issues, which have been compounded by a resumption of violence since the
humanitarian pause ended on May 17.

According to IOM, over 550,000 people have now been displaced by the
conflict, with large numbers heading toward the Horn of Africa.