CAIRO — The chief of the international Red Cross made a rare visit to the front lines in Yemen Monday, taking a dirt road to reach the western city of Taiz, devastated by more than two years of fighting.

The visit by Peter Maurer, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is meant to provide the ICRC with a firsthand look at Yemen's raging cholera epidemic and humanitarian crisis amid the civil war. Maurer already visited the southern port city of Aden and will be ending his trip in Sanaa.

The executive directors of UNICEF and WHO are also in Yemen to urge for much-needed humanitarian aid. The $2.1 billion humanitarian appeal for Yemen is only 33 percent funded, and the response to the cholera epidemic requires an additional $250 million, of which just $47 million has been received, according to the United Nations.

Maurer posted a video showing him driving on unpaved roads to Taiz and tweeted: "The city is encircled and main roads are cut off."

"I find this needless suffering absolutely infuriating. The world is sleep-walking into yet more tragedy," Maurer said on Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of Taiz residents have been caught in the crossfire and residents use donkeys to carry smuggled goods and basic necessities on unpaved roads in and out of the city.

Since April, a cholera epidemic has ravaged the country with around 400,000 suspected cases and over 1,800 deaths. The rainy season underway threatens to worsen the situation and the number of cholera cases is expected to double by the end of the year, according to ICRC.

The ICRC chief is also expected to discuss the issue of illegal detentions and forced disappearances. He says around 10 Yemeni families attend ICRC's offices every week to report a missing person.

Hundreds of detainees are held in undisclosed locations and informal prisons across Yemen.

Maurer said that he discussed the issue of the detainees with government officials in Aden and would do the same with their Houthi counterparts during his visit to Sanaa. He added that the ICRC "prefers to have a quiet and confidential discussion with all sides in order to de-block a situation... no side is moving because the other is not moving." — AP