SANA’A (Dispatches) – Children
suffered the most during the Saudi-led war on Yemen, the country’s Ministry of Human Rights’ spokesman said.
Aref Al-Amiri, the spokesperson of the Sana’a-based Ministry of Human Rights of the National Salvation Government of Yemen said on Monday in an interview with the Arabic-language al-Maalomah news website that about 8,000 children were killed during the eight years of war which started in 2015 against the country by a coalition of regional and Western states.
He said that Yemeni children are living in very difficult physical and mental conditions, lack of health, murder, displacement, asylum and violation of all their rights due to the continuation of the blockade on the impoverished country.
“The United Nations does not abide by its obligations to support the rights of Yemeni children. More than 8,000 children have been killed since the beginning of the American, Saudi and Emirati aggression against Yemen.”
Meanwhile, Abdullah al-Suwaidi, the adviser to the Ministry of Transportation of Yemen, also told al-Maalomah that as a result of the attacks by the Saudi coalition in the last eight years, the damage to Yemen’s land, sea and air transportation infrastructure amounts to $6 billion.
Saudi Arabia initiated a brutal war of aggression against Yemen in March 2015, enlisting the assistance of some of its regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates, as well as massive shipments of advance weaponry from the U.S. and Western Europe.
The Western governments further extended their political and logistical support to Riyadh in their failed bid restore power in Yemen to the country’s former Saudi-installed government.
The former Yemeni government’s president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi resigned from the presidency in late 2014 and later fled to Riyadh amid a political conflict with Ansarullah. The movement has been running Yemen’s affairs in the absence of a functioning administration.
The war further led to the killing of tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire nation into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In another development, the latest round of talks between the warring sides in Yemen to exchange prisoners has concluded, with an increasing focus on a longtime political detainee.
The talks began on Friday in Jordan’s capital Amman under the auspices of the United Nations, which has brokered negotiations and ceasefires between the warring sides.
The government confirmed on Sunday that the latest round of talks ended and would resume after the Eid al-Adha holidays which end in early July.
Notably, sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that the Ansarullah movement had agreed to begin negotiations on the release of prominent politician Mohammed Qahtan, whom they have held for eight years.
Qahtan was a senior figure in the opposition al-Islah Party, which has links with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In mid-April, the Ansarullah and the Saudi Arabia-backed forces engaged in a three-day exchange of prisoners, which ultimately saw close to 900 detainees released.
It was the largest exchange of prisoners since more than 1,000 prisoners were freed in October 2020, signaling a confidence-building measure that boosted hopes in intense diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war that is nearing its nine-year mark.