Evacuations of foreigners in Yemen suspended over security

The International Organisation for Migration has temporarily suspended evacuations of foreigners from Yemen because of security hurdles posed by "all parties to the conflict".

Spokesman Joel Millman says the IOM had been forced to suspend the operation that began on April 12 "until further notice" due to "escalating difficulties faced in undertaking flight operations in recent days".

The IOM said it had flown more than 400 foreign nationals out of the war-torn country since April 12.

The organisation had hoped to operate several flights out of the conflict-ravaged country daily, but had only managed three flights since the evacuations began, Millman told reporters.

"We did our last flight Sunday the 19th, and took out almost 140 stranded migrants," he said, adding that they had been flown to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

The two previous flights on April 12 and 14 had taken some 300 people to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, he said.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia launched air strikes last month against Yemen's Shi'ite-backed rebels, vowing to restore the authority of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the rebel advance to Riyadh.

The World Health Organisation said that Yemen health facilities had registered 944 deaths and 3487 people injured in the conflict as of April 17, but warned that the toll was likely higher since many people are not reaching hospitals for treatment.

Millman said there were still hundreds of thousands of foreigners in the country.

Some 16,000 foreign nationals had turned to IOM alone requesting evacuation.

But Millman pointed out that there are known to be around 250,000 Somalis and 100,000 Ethiopians living in Yemen.