Two Yemenis working for the International Committee of the Red Cross were shot and killed on Wednesday by a gunman while they were in Amran Province, Rima Kamal, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Sana, has revealed.
Kamal was appalled by the attacking, noting that it appeared to be deliberate since the attacker opened fire on cars marked with ICRC insignias, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"It is seemingly a deliberate targeting," she said. "We are very shocked, appalled and saddened."
One died at the scene, while the other died after being taken to the hospital, Kamal reported. However, the names of both victims have yet to be released.
"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms what appears to have been the deliberate targeting of our staff," Antoine Grand, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a later statement.
The attack on the ICRC workers came just a week after the organization announced that it would stop operating in Aden, Yemen's second largest city, after its workers came under repeated attacks and their office there was looted by militants loyal to Yemen's fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, according to albawaba News.
Yemen has been embroiled in conflict since Houthi rebels came down from their stronghold in Saada and captured Sana last September, reported the New York Times. Now both Amran and Saada Provinces are under complete Houthi control.
The UN says that nearly 4,500 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict, as previously reported by HNGN. However, local Yemeni sources say that the fatality figure is much higher.
