GENEVA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday it has pulled 71 staff members out of Yemen, due to a series of incidents and threats.
The action has crippled its humanitarian activities such as surgical services, visits to detainees, clean water initiatives and food assistance activities, said ICRC in a statement here.
"The ICRC has been present in Yemen since 1962, but we are now seeing dangerous trends," said the statement.
"Our current 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," said the ICRC.
The ICRC said it holds all parties responsible for the security of its staff.
"While the Yemen delegation has received numerous threats in the past, we cannot now accept additional risk less than two months after a gunman killed a staff member," said the statement.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since late 2014, when the Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa.
Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile.
The United Nations has listed Yemen as the country of the world's most serious humanitarian crisis, where seven million Yemenis are on the brink of famine and cholera has caused more than 2,000 deaths.
"The ICRC hopes to continue preventing and alleviating the suffering of people caught in the conflict, but we must have the full agreement of all parties to the conflict based on solid guarantees," it said in a statement.
