At least 18 people were injured in Yemen’s north-western province of Sa’ada when Saudi border troops fired artillery at residential neighbourhoods near the border with the kingdom.
According to local sources cited by the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, 10 civilians, including African refugees, were injured in the Monabbih district on Sunday evening, while eight others were injured in an attack on the Shada’a district, including two African asylum seekers.
Yemen’s interior minister claimed that the country is in a ‘security war’ with the United States, alleging that the US is trying to ‘create widespread chaos’ in Yemen.
The minister also said that a list of spy cells in close contact with the US and the Saudi-led coalition and working to undermine the government in Sana’a will be revealed soon.
The overthrown Yemen government, which is supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US, has reportedly signed a long-term contract with UAE company Ajham for the construction of a seaport in the Ras Sherwin area of the southeastern province of al-Mahrah.
The contract, which is worth $100 million, includes the construction of a promontory with a 1,000-metre breakwater, a 300-metre quay for docking ships, and a draft of 14 metres in its first phase.
The port is expected to be used for exporting limestone and other minerals, as well as handling containers and supplying vessels.
Between March 2015 and September 2022, the United Nations has verified that 11,019 children in Yemen have been killed or injured.
Of these, 3,774 were killed (2,742 boys, 983 girls, and 49 of unknown gender) and 7,245 were injured (5,299 boys and 1,946 girls).
There have been 3,995 cases of children (3,904 boys and 91 girls) being recruited into fighting or participating in events or checkpoints.
There have also been 672 attacks on education facilities and 228 attacks on health facilities.
In addition, 445 children (all boys) have been detained and 152 children (140 boys and 12 girls) have been abducted.
47 children (29 boys and 18 girls) have been exposed to conflict-related sexual violence.
The situation in Yemen is dire, with widespread and systematic abuses being perpetrated by all parties to the armed conflict, including the Saudi/UAE-led coalition and the UAE-backed forces.
These abuses have included the indiscriminate killing and injuring of civilians, unlawful airstrikes, and the laying of landmines indiscriminately.
An estimated 233,000 people have died in the conflict since it began, with 102,000 being directly killed in hostilities and 131,000 dying from indirect causes such as disease and famine resulting from the conflict.
The international community has abandoned the people of Yemen and the UNHRC’s decision to dismantle the UN Group of Eminent Experts has left victims without hope for justice, reparations, or redress.
According to a report by the Humanity Eye Centre for Rights and Development, a Yemeni rights group, over 3,000 civilians, including women and children, were killed or injured in airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen in 2022.
The report states that 102 children lost their lives and 353 others were injured, while 27 women were killed and 97 others were injured.
Additionally, the report states that the Saudi-led coalition’s warplanes destroyed 14,367 homes, 134 mosques, 5 tourist facilities, 12 hospitals, 64 educational centres, 1987 agricultural fields, and 7 media facilities, as well as 22 power stations, 974 roads and bridges, 46 communication towers and stations, 334 tanks and water stations, and 57 government facilities.
The report also states that the Saudi-led coalition has destroyed 229 businesses and targeted 1,022 means of transportation, 29 chicken farms, 37 medicine warehouses, 95 food trucks, 21 fuel stations, and 13 fuel tankers in Yemen.
The war, which began in March 2015 with the support of the US and other Western countries, was meant to crush the Ansarullah resistance movement and reinstall the Saudi-friendly government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
However, the coalition has not achieved its goals and the war has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and the creation of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Despite numerous documented instances of unlawful attacks, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain, Germany, Australia, and other countries have continued to provide licenses for the sale of weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other coalition members involved in the war in Yemen.
Italy blocked arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in January 2021 due to concerns that the weapons could be used against civilians.
However, it later lifted the restrictions amid diplomatic tensions.
The Group of Eminent Experts (GEE), a UN panel of experts on Yemen, and other human rights organisations have called on countries to address the lack of accountability for serious crimes including probable war crimes, committed in Yemen.
Under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the UN Human Rights Council narrowly voted to end the GEE’s mandate in October. In response, more than three dozen states at the UN General Assembly called for the international community to ‘actively explore further alternative mechanisms to monitor the human rights situation in Yemen and ensure accountability.’
In 2021, the US appointed Timothy Lenderking as the new special envoy for Yemen, and Hans Grundberg became the new UN special envoy for Yemen in September 2021.
The UN, the US, and Oman have led negotiations between the Houthi armed group, Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni government, but have made little progress.
The UN Security Council has continued to enforce the UN sanctions regime against only the Houthis, despite numerous violations of the laws of war by the Saudi and UAE-led coalition.
After nine years of conflict, the national socioeconomic systems of Yemen remain on the edge of total collapse, while conflict, large-scale displacement and recurring climate shocks have left families vulnerable to communicable diseases outbreaks.
By late 2022, more than 17.8 million people, including 9.2 million children, lacked access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services.
The country continues to experience regular outbreaks of cholera, measles, diphtheria and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
In summary, it is estimated that a large portion of the population in Yemen, approximately 24.1 million people or 80%, will require humanitarian aid and protection.
It is also predicted that in the coming months, 19 million Yemenis will experience hunger and over 160,000 will face famine-like conditions.
The situation is likely to worsen due to a decrease in the supply of wheat from Ukraine as a result of the ongoing conflict there.
There are approximately 4 million displaced people in Yemen who are living in a variety of circumstances, including tents in displacement camps, unfinished buildings, and the remains of their former homes.
Many families do not have basic necessities like cooking sets, blankets, or mats to sleep on as they had to leave everything behind when they fled.
The shelters they are living in have been damaged by years of use and exposure to extreme weather conditions, including heavy rain and the harsh desert climate.
According to the Yemen Data Project, January 2022 was the most violent month in the Saudi-led air war in Yemen in over five years.
The Project recorded 139 civilian deaths and 287 civilians injured in Saudi coalition airstrikes in January, bringing the total number of civilian deaths and injuries to over 19,000 since the start of the bombing campaign in March 2015.
This was the highest number of civilian casualties recorded in a single month in the air war since October 2016.
The Saudi-led coalition airstrikes caused more harm to civilians in the first month of 2022 than in the previous two years combined.
The Biden administration has been leading a global campaign against Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, portraying it as a moral crusade and receiving support from the public in America and Europe.
At the same time, the administration has also led a global campaign in support of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they continue their lengthy and brutal assault on Yemen, condemning the Houthi-led insurgents for fighting back against the wealthy Gulf monarchies.
While the United Nations Security Council was unable to condemn Russia’s invasion due to a veto by Russia, it did pass a resolution, pushed by the UAE, declaring the Yemeni insurgents as terrorists with the backing of the Biden administration.
However, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been bombing Yemeni cities for more than eight years without criticism from Washington, even as they continue to launch attacks from the air that have caused thousands of deaths.
