The International Committee of the Red Cross is removing 71 of its international staff from Yemen, citing a series of incidents and threats by groups trying to turn the organisation into a pawn in the three-year civil war.

The ICRC, which has had a presence in Yemen since 1962, warned the enforced departures would cripple its humanitarian activities, such as surgical services, visits to detainees, clean water initiatives and food assistance.

“Our current activities have been blocked, threatened and directly targeted in recent weeks, and we see a vigorous attempt to instrumentalise our organisation as a pawn in the conflict,” the director of operations, Dominik Stillhart, said. “The ICRC holds all parties responsible for the security of its staff.”

The Yemen civil war, now in its fourth year, is a multilayered conflict in which a Saudi-led coalition is battling to defeat a Houthi resistance and restore the UN-recognised government to the capital, Sana’a.

UN envoy seeks deal to avert Saudi-led assault on Yemeni port Read more

The ICRC said it could only continue its operations in Yemen if it had the full agreement of all parties to the conflict. An ICRC employee, a Lebanese national, was killed on 21 April when an unknown gunman opened fire on the man’s car in the south-western city of Taiz.

Stillhart said: “While the Yemen delegation has received numerous threats in the past, we cannot now accept additional risk less than two months after a gunman killed a staff member.

“The security of our staff, who are being intimidated by parties to the conflict, is a non-negotiable prerequisite for our presence and work in Yemen and an absolute priority.”

The new UN special envoy, Martin Griffiths, is due to publish the outlines of a peace plan in two weeks in which all warring sides will be asked to lay down arms and work towards a joint government.

The ICRC said it had worked in Yemen for more than five decades to help victims of armed conflict and violence, including displaced people, families of the missing, detainees, mine victims, and those in need of healthcare in Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Sa’ada and Hodeidah.