![Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Katharina Ritz, ICRC's head of delegation, give a press conference in Baghdad on March 7, 2018. [AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-928557882.jpg?fit=1120%2C800&ssl=1)
The humanitarian needs of Yemenis are “enormous and beyond imagination,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen warned yesterday.
It said the UN truce declared in Yemen is very important as it includes the cessation of military operations for a period of two months.
“We continue to do our best to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need throughout the country, but the needs remain enormous and beyond imagination,” the head of the Red Cross delegation in Yemen, Katharina Ritz, said.
“We continue to support and raise awareness about the thousands of missing Yemenis who are detained or separated from their families,” Ritz added.
“The two-month truce is just in time,” she said. Yemenis have suffered the brunt of the conflict over the past seven years.
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On Saturday, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced the UN truce, which includes stopping military operations in Yemen for a renewable period of two months.
The protracted armed conflict in Yemen has now been raging for seven consecutive years, resulting in 4.3 million people fleeing their homes and 20.7 million people – 80 per cent of the population – needing humanitarian aid.
It also pushed 16.2 million people – 53 per cent of the population – to face extreme hunger, with 4.71 million children and women acutely malnourished.
According to the UNICEF, 17.8 million people now also lack access to safe water and sanitation, including 12.6 million who are in acute need, while 20.1 million people – 66 per cent of the population – have no access to healthcare.