Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh asks Red Cross to expand emergency and surgical support
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s health minister asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to expand emergency and surgical support, the state news agency Saba reported Monday.
Minister of Public Health and Population Qasim Buhaibeh met Amira Krir, head of the ICRC mission in Aden.
The two reviewed the organisation’s health programmes, the support it currently provides and the ministry’s priority needs, Saba said.
The agency listed those needs as emergency care, surgery, ambulance services, medicines and medical supplies.
Buhaibeh asked the ICRC to direct additional support to the areas and health facilities the ministry considers most vulnerable, according to Saba.
He proposed forming a joint working group to set priorities and speed up responses.
Krir said the ICRC would continue working with the ministry and would expand support for emergency, trauma and surgical services, the agency reported.
The two sides agreed to establish a regular mechanism for communication and follow-up.
The account of the meeting rests on Saba, which is run by the internationally recognised government. Yemen Herald found no independent report of the talks, and neither the ICRC nor the ministry has published an account of its own.
The ministry works from Aden, the seat of the government and of the Presidential Leadership Council.
The meeting took place as fighting escalated across several fronts.
Houthi forces began an offensive on Sept. 3, according to Al Jazeera.
They took the Red Sea port of Mocha on Sept. 10 and reached Mayyun island, also known as Perim, the following day as government forces pulled back, international news organisations reported.
The advance gave the group control of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and positions commanding the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden on the route to the Suez Canal.
Mocha lies on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, north of the strait.
Aid arriving by sea now depends in part on Houthi decisions about shipping.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Sept. 11 that navigation through the strait was safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which he said had already been banned.
Saudi Arabia has carried out airstrikes in Yemen during the offensive, including at Mocha airport, international news organisations reported.
The International Organization for Migration said on Sept. 11 that at least 46,000 people had been displaced in south-western Yemen.
It raised that figure the next day to more than 76,000, counting displacement since July.
By Sept. 13 the agency put the total above 85,000 and said about 2,000 people had crossed into Djibouti.
IOM said separately that 1,628 Ethiopian migrants returned from Yemen to Djibouti in August, before the current displacement began.
The United Nations reported on Sept. 11 that hospitals were receiving an influx of trauma patients, and that emergency, surgical and intensive care units faced rising demand and limited capacity.
Yemen’s human rights ministry said Monday that a preliminary count recorded 150 civilians killed and more than 200 wounded in what it called Houthi violations since Sept. 3, Saba reported.
Those figures come from one party to the conflict and have not been independently confirmed. The Houthi movement has not published a count of its own.
President Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, held calls on Sunday with council members Sultan al-Aradah, Mahmoud al-Subaihi and Salem al-Khanbashi, Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani and the commander of the Fourth Military Region, Maj. Gen. Hamdi Shukri, Saba said.
The agency said the calls covered field, security, service and humanitarian conditions, and that al-Alimi instructed officials to double relief efforts.
Yemen’s cabinet approved relief measures for families displaced by the advance, Saba reported on Sept. 13.
UN special envoy Hans Grundberg condemned Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia as the Security Council held an emergency session on Sept. 11.
Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba discussed the escalation and its effect on Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab security with her Tunisian counterpart on Monday, Saba said.
The ICRC has worked in Yemen throughout the war.
It described 2025 as a year of deepening crisis in the country and said Yemen was its fourth-largest operation worldwide that year.
The organisation runs programmes in areas held by both the government and the Houthis.
It said its priorities for 2026 were to address rising humanitarian needs alongside financial constraints and shifting conflict dynamics.
The organisation has run surgical capacity in Aden before, including a hospital it opened during earlier fighting in the city.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in the humanitarian needs and response plan it published in March that more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance.
It put the number of acutely food insecure people at 18.3 million.
More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, OCHA said, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
The plan recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people, a total that predates the current offensive.
OCHA sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people this year.
The World Health Organization issued a separate health emergency appeal for Yemen for 2026.
Buhaibeh met health sector partners the same day to discuss emergency response, Saba reported in a second item.
The ministry did not say when the joint working group would be formed.
About the Author
