Alwaght- Amid a brutal Saudi-led aggression, the UN says April was the deadliest month this year so far with a "sharp" increase in civilian casualties in the impoverished Arab state with more than 230 deaths.
" At least 236 civilians were killed and 238 injured in Yemen in April -- a total of 474 civilian casualties, well over double the 180 civilian casualties documented in March this year," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Shamdasani said six civilians were killed and 57 injured in the first week of May, warning that heavy death toll in the country continued in May as well.
"We are deeply concerned about the sharp increase in civilian casualties and call, again, on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law," she said.
"Recent attacks against sites located in densely populated areas, including Monday's air strikes against the presidential office in Sana'a, raise serious doubts about respect of the principles of precaution, distinction and proportionality in international humanitarian law. Based on the information collected by the UN Human Rights office in Yemen, the first raid hit directly the presidential office, which is located in a densely populated area. Eye witnesses told us that the same building was hit again about seven minutes after the first strike, causing additional casualties among the first responders to the first strike."
"We are deeply concerned about the sharp increase in civilian casualties and call, again, on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law," she said.
Elsewhere in her remarks, Shamdasani said that Saudi-led coalition was responsible for vast majority of civilian deaths.
According to UN, a total of at least 6,385 civilians have been killed, and 10,047 injured since the start of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen in March 2015.
"The vast majority of these 10,185 civilian casualties were as a result of airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led Coalition," she said.
According to other estimates, over 14,000 Yemenis have been killed and tens of thousands injured in Saudi-led strikes, with the vast majority of them being civilians, especially women and children.
