Yemeni Shiite rebels embroiled in weeklong skirmishes with government forces stormed a camp in northern Yemen housing thousands displaced during years of warfare and seized humanitarian aid, a local aid group said on Monday.
Shiite Zaidi rebels burst into Al-Ind camp and took away aid supplies from the site on the outskirts of Saada, capital of the rugged mountainous province of the same name, the head of Yemen's Red Crescent said.
The Red Crescent asked the government to suspend hostilities for two days so the aid workers could relocate the displaced population to other camps away from the fighting, Abdul-Qader Shaweet said.
"Some families refused to move out of Al-Ind Camp, likely under pressure from the rebels,"Shaweet said.
The rebels, led by Abdul-Malek al-Huthi, have been engaged in fighting with government forces on and off since 2004. The Sunni-dominated government accuses them of seeking to reinstate imamate rule, which ended in a republican coup in 1962.
But the Huthis say they are defending their villages against what they call state aggression.
Thousands of people, including members of Yemen's tiny but ancient Jewish community, have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the fighting.
Yemen's Red Crescent, along with international aid groups, oversees three camps in the province of Saada that house around 12,000 displaced families, providing them with humanitarian needs, such as food and bed covers.
In the past week the army has waged a major offensive on the stronghold of the rebels in Saada, sparking accusations from the rebels that troops have killed dozens of civilians.
The government on Thursday offered terms for ending the offensive, including the rebels evacuating all government offices they have occupied, handing over ammunition and equipment and freeing their prisoners. The rebels shunned the proposal.
An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is himself a Zaidi.