The U.N. Security Council has convened an emergency meeting on Yemen, with the U.N. chief warning that severe fuel shortages could stop all aid operations “within days.”

Before entering the meeting Friday, Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Yemen was very concerning.  He called on all parties to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access throughout the country.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said before the meeting that there were very basic shortages of food, medicine and diesel fuel.  “In Yemen, everything works on diesel fuel — hospitals, the whole thing,” he said.  

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Thursday that “humanitarian operations will end within days unless fuel supplies are restored.”  Ban reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire, or at least a pause, in the fighting.

The fighting among various Yemeni groups and the airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition have helped create a humanitarian crisis in what was already the Arab world’s poorest country.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said Friday that it had killed “dozens” of Yemeni Shi’ite rebels who were carrying out a large-scale cross-border attack on the kingdom.

In a statement, Riyadh’s Defense Ministry said three Saudi soldiers were killed in the fighting late Thursday in southern Najran province.

The ministry said the rebels attacked border posts and control points. They were repelled by a combination of Saudi ground troops and airstrikes.

It was believed to be the largest cross-border attack by the rebels since the Saudi-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes against them five weeks ago.

Riyadh last week announced it was scaling back the air raids, saying it had accomplished its goal of weakening the rebels, who are believed to be backed by Iran.

The Houthis are loyal to former longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in 2012 during the Arab Spring protests that swept the region.

The rebels have overtaken the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and forced the country’s Western-backed leader, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, to flee to Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations said at least 1,200 people had been killed in the fighting and estimated that about half of those killed were civilians.
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