Gunman kills two Yemeni staff of Red Cross
The pair were travelling with two colleagues in two vehicles clearly marked with Red Cross emblem.
SANAA (AFP) - A gunman killed two Yemenis working for the International Committee of the Red Cross north of the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the humanitarian organisation said.
"Sadly, two of our staff were brutally killed on their way back from Saada to Sanaa," the ICRC s Yemen spokeswoman Rima Kamal said, referring to the northern stronghold of Shiite rebels who have been battling loyalists of the exiled president.
The pair were travelling with two colleagues in two vehicles "clearly" marked with the Red Cross emblem when they were stopped in Amran province by a gunman who opened fire at the vehicles, Kamal told AFP.
"One of our colleagues passed away on the spot while another sustained critical injuries and was transferred to an MSF (Doctors Without Borders) hospital... where he passed away shortly after," she said.
The other two were unharmed, she added.
The head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, Antoine Grand, said the victims were a field officer and a driver.
"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms what appears to have been the deliberate targeting of our staff," Grand said in a statement.
He added that "it is premature for us at this point to determine the impact of this appalling incident on our operations in Yemen."
But ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva Sitara Jabeen told AFP that "after this incident we have stopped all our movements in the country for the time being."
The ICRC said it was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, noting that there had been a number of security incidents involving the organisation in recent months.
On August 25, the ICRC said it had suspended its operations in Yemen s second city Aden after gunmen robbed its main office while holding staff at gunpoint.
The organisation has stepped up its relief activities in Yemen since the rebels entered Aden in March prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which has led a military intervention to restore him to power.
His loyalists have since recaptured Aden but security in the battered southern port city remains fragile.
The ICRC says it provides vital humanitarian support to hundreds of thousands of people in need across Yemen.
