UN: 18,000 Yemen Civilians Killed, Wounded in Saudi Strikes Since 2015
SANA’A (Dispatches) – A
United Nations panel found that 18,000 Yemeni civilians had been killed or wounded in Saudi air strikes since 2015 during the ongoing aggression on the country.
A report presented to the Human Rights Council on Thursday said Yemenis have been subjected to some ten air strikes a day, a total of more than 23,000 since March 2015.
The report found that the Saudi-led coalition, responsible for all the air strikes in the impoverished country, has killed and wounded civilians.
Saudi Arabia launched the hugely indiscriminate war on Yemen in 2015 to restore power to Yemen’s former officials, who have been loyal friends to Riyadh, and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
Yemen’s army and Popular Committees have, however, never laid down their arms in the face of the heavily Western-backed coalition.
Saudi Arabia launched the hugely indiscriminate war on Yemen in 2015 to restore power to Yemen’s former officials, who have been loyal friends to Riyadh, and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
Yemen’s army and Popular Committees have, however, never laid down their arms in the face of the heavily Western-backed coalition.
They have staged numerous counterattacks against the kingdom, including its oil facilities and capital, and made surprise advances in the western province of Ma’rib to the sheer alarm of Riyadh and its supporters.
The war has deteriorated largely into a stalemate leading to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths warned last month that Yemen is spiraling faster toward food shortages and other humanitarian catastrophes, with millions of people in the Arab country ravaged by a Saudi war being “a step away” from famine and related diseases.
“Today, about 5 million people are just one step away from succumbing to famine and the diseases that go with it. Ten million more are right behind them,” Griffiths, former United Nations special envoy for Yemen, added.