Alwaght- More than 100 Yemeni people, mostly children, were killed by cluster bombs in 2015, when Saudi Arabia launched its aggression against neighboring Yemen.
Cluster bombs, a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions across a wide area which sometimes fail to explode and are difficult to locate and remove, killing and maiming civilians long after conflicts end.
In 2015, cluster bombs killed 104 people, more than a third of them children, the Cluster Munition Coalition said, adding that the actual number of casualties was likely to be much higher.
"The suffering is still continuing and civilians continue to be the predominant victims of cluster bombs," said Jeff Abramson, program manager at Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, which is part of the coalition.
According to Amnesty International, Children are particularly at risk of picking up and playing with sub munitions, which they mistake for toys, given their small size and shape.
The UK-based human rights organization in a report released in May 2016 said children and their families returning home in northern Yemen are at grave risk of serious injury and death from thousands of unexploded cluster bomb sub munitions.
Amnesty International said it found, on its most recent mission, evidence of US, Britain and Brazilian cluster munitions used by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces.
It demanded the international community to clear contaminated areas and countries with influence to urge the Saudi-led coalition to stop using cluster munitions, which are internationally banned and inherently indiscriminate.
It urged donor countries to act quickly to support local efforts to safely and urgently locate, mark and clear areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance and educate affected communities on how to avoid danger in the meantime.
“The United States is playing a quiet but lethal role in the killing and wounding of thousands of civilians in Yemen’s civil war. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has purchased U.S. fighter jets and other American-made weapons in deals worth billions of dollars, and the Pentagon has provided the coalition with training, aerial refueling support and intelligence as it attacks targets in Yemen,” The Washington Post says.
Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.
Nearly 10,000 Yemeni have been killed during the illegal aggression, with the vast majority of them being innocent civilians including women and children.
Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to the Saudi regime.
The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, markets, schools, factories and mosques, resulting in damage costing 14.3 billion dollars.
