Alwaght- Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes against Yemen have claimed lives of scores of civilians in the course of past two weeks, a UN official said on Tuesday.
The UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a regular UN briefing that Saudi airstrikes has killed 136 civilians and non-combatants since December 6, Reuters reported.
Incidents verified by the UN included seven air strikes that hit a prison in the Shaub district of Sanaa on December 13, killing at least 45 detainees thought to be loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is supported by Saudi Arabia.
Tuesday marks the 1000th day since the Saudi-led coalition launched a devastating war on the neighboring Arab nation.
Today Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the northwestern city of Sa’ada to protest the Saudi-led coalition's brutal bombardment campaign launched since 27 March 2015.
The Saudi-led war, which is accompanied by a land, aerial and naval blockade of Yemen, has so far killed more than 13,000 people and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories.
The United Nations has warned that millions of people will die in Yemen due to famine unless the Saudi-led coalition ends its devastating blockade on the impoverished state.
Separately on Monday, over 350 high-profile global figures urged the US, Britain and France, the three Western backers of Saudi Arabia’s bloody offensive on Yemen, to use their UN Security Council seats and help ease the sufferings in the Arab nation instead of fanning “the flames of war” there.
Meanwhile, the international humanitarian agency CARE also warned that Yemen risks sliding into famine and further disease outbreaks unless all its ports are fully reopened.
“More than 22 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, 7 million people face famine-like conditions and the country is experiencing one of the worst cholera outbreaks on record,” it said.
CARE’s Country Director in Yemen Johan Mooij said that while some land, sea and air ports had recently reopened, the country’s main ports remained closed to commercial imports.
“The situation is appalling,” he said. “Today millions of Yemenis are facing multiple crises of war, hunger, disease outbreaks and recent blockades on fuel and commercial imports.”
