AFP PHOTO A series of explosions Thursday on Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida killed 55 civilians and wounded dozens of others, the Red Cross said, denouncing the “reprehensible” disregard for human life.

The attacks, which were also denounced by a senior UN official, come as the United Nations has said it will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations.

UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore the internationally recognized government to power and push back the Huthi rebels, who still hold the capital Sanaa.

The war has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday said 55 civilians were killed and 170 others wounded “when a series of explosions rocked densely populated districts of the coastal city, including a fish market and the area around Al-Thawra Hospital”.

It was the first independent toll since the attack took place. An earlier toll Thursday by medics and witnesses had said at least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded in an air strike at the Al-Thawra hospital and the bombardment of the fish market in Hodeida. Al-Thawra hospital — Yemen’s largest — is supported by the ICRC, which also said that two ambulances were destroyed in Thursday’s attacks.

But the ICRC said the details of the attacks were still unknown. “While the exact circumstances around the ground explosions are still unknown, this lack of respect for civilian life and civilian property is reprehensible,” Johannes Bruwer, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a statement on Friday.