Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSRelief)

Saudi Arabia is distributing life-saving assistance throughout Yemen, including areas held by Iran-allied Houthi rebels, sometimes by donkey or camel, a top Saudi aid official said Thursday.

“Our programs have been reaching all regions of Yemen, I want to emphasize all regions, irrespective of who controls it,” Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSRelief), told a news conference.

“As much as we have been in the south, we have been in the north. Our programs are also active in Houthi-controlled areas such as Saada, Haja, Amran and Sanaa.”

KSRelief provides food, health, education, water and sanitation, Al-Rabeeah said, adding that it had used Saudi-led coalition air planes to drop medicines and food supplies in the southern governorate of Taiz to keep the four main hospitals functioning.

“For the oxygen supply for the intensive care units… we used donkeys and camels to carry oxygen cylinders through the mountains.”

Al-Rabeeah, a former health minister, backed a proposal for independent monitoring of the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeidah to ensure that commercial and aid goods enter freely.

“We would love to see… a neutral monitoring system that will allow the access of commercial and non-commercial items, and especially humanitarian,” he said.