SANAA (Dispatches) – Saudi warplanes have carried out the kingdom’s heaviest bombardment of the Yemeni soil since the onset of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, targeting the vicinity of the Presidential Palace in the capital Sana’a.
The aircraft pounded al-Nahdain Mountain in the south of the city five times early Monday, Yemen’s official Saba’ Net news agency reported. The strikes destroyed several residential buildings and inflicted other material damage, but there was no immediate word on possible casualties.
Also on Monday, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network released footage of the damage caused a day earlier by Saudi airstrikes on a health center in the northwestern province of Sa’ada, used to treat cholera patients.
The attack took place as the outbreak continues to spread across the country, having already claimed more than 600 lives.
As Yemen is struggling with a cholera epidemic, Saudi warplanes have reportedly stricken a health center treating cholera patients in the impoverished country’s extreme northwest.
The attack killed and injured a number of people at the facility in the Sa’ada Province, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported, citing the province’s health authority.
The epidemic has claimed the lives of 605 Yemenis, 40 percent of whom were children.
UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Tuesday that only "less than 45 percent” of medical facilities in the country were functioning.
The disease brings along severe diarrhea, which can kill those afflicted within hours if not treated properly. Malnourished children are especially susceptible.
In March 2015, the Saudi regime and its allies, backed by the U.S., began a military campaign against Yemen to reinstall its former government. The war has killed over 12,000 civilians since then.
The invasion has been compounded by a Saudi blockade of the country. Back in May, the UN’s children fund reported an unprecedented increase in the number of suspected cholera cases across the country, and said many of those affected were children.
"Yemen has one of the world’s highest number of acutely malnourished children. Public services are on the brink of collapse,” the UNICEF warned, saying, "Anyone with a heart for children cannot let the situation in Yemen continue!”
Attempts at ceasefire have all failed so far on the back of repeated Saudi violations.