REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GENEVA -- Members of the Saudi-led coalition conducting air strikes in Yemen are preventing a Red Cross plane from delivering medical supplies in Sanaa, an spokeswoman at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the independent aid agency "called for the urgent removal of obstacles to the delivery to Yemen of vital medical supplies needed to treat casualties from a week of deadly clashes and air strikes".

"We still don't have the permission from coalition members," ICRC spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen told Reuters in Geneva, declining to specify which coalition authorities were responsible for the hold-up.

The aircraft, carrying enough medical supplies to treat from 700 to 1,000 wounded, is still in Djibouti, she said. It is due to fly to Amman, Jordan, to load supplies from an ICRC warehouse before flying to Sanaa, once guarantees are received.

Another emergency aid group, Medecins Sans Frontieres, also said on Tuesday that airport closures and naval restrictions were also preventing it from sending in teams and supplies.

"MSF is currently unable to deploy additional emergency medical staff to Yemen, where they are badly needed," MSF director of operations Dr. Greg Elder said. "We urgently need to find ways to get humanitarian relief and personnel inside the country."

A spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition said delivery of medical supplies needed official clearance.

"All kinds of assistance is welcome but we ask the non-government organisations or the countries that want to help to go through the diplomatic channel," Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri told reporters in Riyadh.

That would allow authorities to provide proper assistance and avoid "any mistakes or misunderstandings concerning the movement in port or airport or through the Saudi border".

ICRC said its efforts so far to negotiate the safe arrival of its aid plane had been unsuccessful, and that supplies for treating the war wounded were running low at hospitals across Yemen.

For six days, a Saudi-led coalition has bombed Iran-allied Houthi fighters and army units fighting against President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose last bastion in the southern city of Aden was heavily shelled overnight.

"An ICRC surgical team is due to arrive shortly in the southern city of Aden, where casualty numbers have been greatest," the ICRC said.

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