The violation of what was supposed to be a weeklong cease-fire, the abduction of two aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a cyclone that has complicated relief operations are just some of the recent events that have exacerbated already worsening conditions in Yemen.
Conflict between forces fighting for the exiled President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthis — the Shiite insurgency group that ousted Hadi in January 2015 — has created a political vacuum and endangered the lives of civilians and aid workers working on the ground. While the peace talks in Switzerland in December 2015 resulted in the warring factions agreeing on both a broad framework and a second round of talks set for January 2016, there is still a need for a permanent cease-fire for those discussions to bear fruit.
Security challenges are aggravated by the fact that there are now several parties to the conflict, adding more layers to an already complex humanitarian operation, according to Rima Kamal, ICRC’s communication coordinator in Yemen. For ICRC, this has meant that coordinating field movements, securing safety guarantees and addressing violations in a confidential bilateral dialogue have become even more problematic.