Story highlights An International Red Cross plane arrived in Sanaa with aid workers

UNICEF aircraft carried 1.9 doses of three vaccines, enough for 600,000 children

(CNN) Critically needed aid arrived Saturday in war-torn Yemen, some of the first such aid to arrive since Saudi Arabia imposed a blockade of the country in early November.

Passenger planes carrying aid workers and around 1.9 million vaccine doses -- enough for 600,000 children -- landed in Sanaa, United Nations World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said. Three types of vaccines were sent to protect against at least eight deadly diseases, including whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia and meningitis.

.@UNICEF's chartered flight just brought in over 15 tonnes of the most needed lifesaving Penta, BCG and PCV vaccines to protect about 600k children from diphtheria, tetanus, etc. The needs are huge and there is much more to do for#YemenChildren.

#Yemen pic.twitter.com/ezgGKQ1gi6 — UNICEF Yemen (@UNICEF_Yemen) November 25, 2017

A WFP ship carrying wheat flour that had been waiting off the Yemeni coast since November 11 also was expected to arrive Saturday at the Port of Hodeida, she said.

"To feed the 7 million people suffering severe famine, we need this kind of access on a regular basis, as we had before November 5," Etefa said. "We are hoping that commercial ships carrying food will also be allowed access to Yemen's ports soon, as the country imports 90% of its food and this is the only way to end the famine."

A plane carrying eight aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross also landed Saturday in Sanaa, a spokeswoman said.

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