The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a wake-up call on Sunday, warning that “Yemen is crumbling” and admonishing that, “The humanitarian situation is nothing short of catastrophic.” According to Peter Maurer, who is touring the region, “Medicines can’t get in so patient care is falling apart. Fuel shortages mean equipment doesn’t work. This cannot go on. Yemen is crumbling. As a matter of urgency, there must be free movement of goods into and across the country.” The Red Cross estimates more than 4,000 deaths since the fighting began last September when the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthis overran the capital Sana’a. Since then the fighting has spread to Aden in the south and to key cities in central Yemen. For the past three months, forces loyal to exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi have been reclaiming territory lost to the Houthis with the aid of aerial bombing by a coalition of regional air forces led by Saudi Arabia. The cost has been horrific with whole neighborhoods destroyed. Estimates are that 1.3 million Yemeni have been forced from their homes. The Red Cross is one of a very few relief organizations still functioning in Yemen, but according to Mauer cannot provide more than it is already doing, and that is not enough. The ICRC says that since January it’s provided water for two million people and food and other essentials to 100,000. On Monday, Doctors Without Borders said it was overwhelmed by the onslaught of war-wounded the group is treating: more than 10,000 since the war began.