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Life-saving medical supplies reach Yemen: ICRC

Xinhua, August 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday that a plane carrying 130,000 vials of insulin had touched down in Yemen's capital Sana'a Monday morning.

"This insulin cargo will help thousands of diabetics whose suffering has been heightened since the conflict started," said the head of the ICRC in Yemen, Alexandre Faite.

"Subsidized medication, including insulin, used to be provided on a regular basis by the Yemeni ministry of public health. But it is now out of reach for thousands of patients," he added.

The medicine will be used to improve the quality of life of the estimated 900,000 people suffering from diabetes in the war-torn country.

ICRC said a second shipment of 70,000 insulin-vials is set arrive by sea in the coming weeks.

These will be distributed in southern parts of Yemen, a country which has been locked in a deadly civil war pitching pro-government forces and Houthi rebels since March 2015.

"The insulin cargo we have brought in today complements other efforts we are undertaking to address some of the severe shortages of medical supplies in the country," Faite explained.

"Less than 30 percent of the required medicines and medical supplies entered Yemen in 2015," he warned. Endit