People set up emergency aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross in an aircraft prior to its departure to Yemen on April 9.

The first Red Cross plane carrying medical aid into Yemen landed in Sanaa airport on Friday, marking their first delivery of medical supplies since the beginning of the Saudi-led military campaign against Houthi militias.

“This is the first ICRC plane to have landed in Sanaa. It is loaded with 16 tons of medical aid,” Marie-Claire Feghali, spokeswoman in Yemen for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a tweet.

The shipment was made up of “drugs and surgical instruments,” the spokeswoman told AFP via telephone from Sanaa airport after the arrival of the plane.

“Tomorrow, a second plane will be carrying 32 tonnes of medical supplies, generators and water purification equipment for hospitals in Sanaa,” she added.

On Wednesday a Red Cross boat carrying medical aid and personnel docked at Yemen’s southern city of Aden, the main battleground in the conflict between forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

On board was a team of five medics from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), according to the head of MSF in Yemen, Marie-Elisabeth Ingres.

Ingres said at the time that another boat travelling from Djibouti and carrying 2.5 tons of medical aid had reached Aden, the first aid delivered since the Saudi-led coalition launched its strikes on March 26.

The Red Cross has been appealing for an immediate truce to facilitate aid deliveries.

It has called for land, air and sea routes to be opened to allow delivery of 48 tons of medical supplies it has ready to treat up to 3,000 wounded.

The military campaign’s central command had set up a “Committee of Evacuation and Humanitarian aid operations” and will only work through recognized or “known” organizations namely the Red Cross and UNICEF, the coalition spokesman said April 4.

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