Red Cross pulls 71 staff members out of war-torn Yemen

CAIRO – The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has pulled 71 staff members out of Yemen after a series of incidents and threats in the war-torn country.

Dominik Stillhart, ICRC’s director of operations, says Thursday that ICRC’s staff is being intimidated by parties in Yemen’s civil war.

He said staff activities have been “blocked, threatened and directly targeted in recent weeks, and we see a vigorous attempt to instrumentalize our organization as a pawn in the conflict.”

In April, unidentified armed men shot dead a humanitarian aid worker from the ICRC in Yemen’s southwestern province of Taiz.

Yemen’s civil war has raged since March 2015 between Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition. The war has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.