First food aid arrives in Yemen post blockade eased

The first food aid has been allowed to dock at a port in Yemen, after a three-week blockade by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition.

About 25,000 tonnes of wheat will be offloaded on Monday for starving people in Yemen, reported Al Jazeera.

The shipment landed on Sunday at the Houthi rebel-controlled Red Sea port of Saleef in western Yemen, said a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), Abeer Etefa.

Planes carrying medical supplies were allowed to land in the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, but this is the first shipment of food aid to be let in.

UN officials have warned Yemen could face the world's largest famine in decades unless the crippling blockade by the coalition is lifted.

The impoverished Middle East country is highly dependent on imported wheat.

The blockade was imposed on November 6, after a missile attack on Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of supplying arms to the Houthis, which Tehran denies.

On Saturday, about 1.9 million doses of vaccines were also flown into Yemen, a UN children's agency official said on Sunday.

But two UNICEF vessels carrying food, water purification tables, and medicine heading to the Hodeida port have not yet received clearance to dock.

Yemen's civil war has raged since 2015 when the Houthis stormed the capital, Sana'a, and deposed the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.