YEMEN’S 20-month war has killed over 7,000 people and wounded nearly 37,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, and a UN envoy has voiced alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation.
‘More than 7,070 people have been killed and over 36,818 injured’ as of October 25, the WHO said in a statement. Another 21 million people are in need of urgent health services, the UN health agency added.
Speaking to reporters at the airport of the rebel-held capital Sana’a on Monday, UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that the situation cannot continue. ‘People are dying . . . the infrastructure is falling apart . . . and the economy is on the brink of the abyss,’ he said.
The UN envoy urged the Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemen’s airspace, to allow commercial flights into and out of Sana’a’s international airport to evacuate the wounded. But the coalition argues that Houthi rebels would use the airport, if completely under their control, to transport weapons.
And in recent weeks, international organisations have also warned of the spread of disease and growing malnutrition rates in the country. The WHO says 2.1 million people have been internally displaced by the conflict, and more than half of all health facilities across the country have been shut or are functioning only partially amid ‘critical shortages’ of doctors.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed warned of a ‘very dangerous’ health situation with an estimated 2,241 suspected cholera cases. The UN has confirmed 71 cases of the disease, which is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhoea.
Attempts by the UN envoy to convince the warring parties to commit to a ceasefire and resume peace talks have failed. Ould Cheikh Ahmed urged the rivals to ‘make some concessions’ and defended a roadmap for peace he put forward last month. The mediator, who had been discussing his proposal with the rebels since Thursday, was headed to Riyadh to meet Saudi- and West-backed deposed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The contents of the roadmap have not been made public, but sources say it calls for agreement on naming a new vice president after Houthi forces withdraw from Sana’a and other cities and hand over heavy weapons to a third party.
Hadi would then transfer power to the vice president who would appoint a new prime minister to form a government in which the north and south of Yemen would have equal representation.
Houthi fighters and their supporters have rejected the UN plan. Yemeni soldiers backed by allied fighters have taken control of two Saudi military bases in the kingdom’s southern border region of Asir. According to military sources, a Saudi military vehicle was also destroyed in last Sunday night’s retaliatory attack.
On Saturday, Yemeni forces also attacked a military position in the region in which several Saudi border guards were killed and injured. Also on Sunday, Yemeni artillery targeted and destroyed a Saudi mercenary rallying point in Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran region, killing a large number of troops stationed there. Earlier in the day, Yemeni forces launched missiles at a Saudi base in the region, destroying it and causing a large number of casualties.
On Saturday, Saudi military aircraft carried out a fresh round of strikes against several areas across Yemen including the Razeh district in the northwestern province of Sa’ada as well as the Nihm and Hamdan districts in the western province of Sana’a.
Yemen fighters launch these attacks in retaliation against Saudi Arabia’s relentless airstrikes in the country which have been carried out since March 2015. The war was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen’s president. The UN puts the death toll from the military aggression at over 10,000.
Meanwhile, a US congressman has warned that American troops could be prosecuted for providing military support to the Saudi war on Yemen. Ted Lieu made the warning in a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, saying the US government’s denial of target selection for Saudi airstrikes in Yemen does not excuse Washington from legal responsibilities.
‘I find it deeply troubling that the US apparently has no advanced knowledge of what targets will be struck by jets that are refueled by US personnel with US tankers,’ Lieu said in his letter. The US would appear to be violating LOAC (laws of armed conflict) and international standards by engaging in such direct military operations if US personnel are not aware if targets are civilian or military, if the loss of life and property are disproportional, or if the operation is even militarily necessary,’ he noted.
Pointing to the 18-month involvement of the US in Saudi war on the Yemeni people, the Democratic congressman stressed that Washington had knowledge of a bombardment campaign hitting civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, multiple times.
”US personnel are now at legal risk of being investigated and potentially prosecuted for committing war crimes. Under international law, a person can be found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes. Under US law, a person can be found guilty for conspiring to commit war crimes,’ Lieu wrote.
The Pentagon has been providing logistic and surveillance support to Saudi Arabia in its military aggression against Yemen, the kingdom’s impoverished southern neighbour, which has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis since its onset in March 2015. The unprovoked war was started by a coalition of Saudi-allies in an attempt to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.
Washington has on several occasions criticised the Saudi regime for its crimes against humanity in Yemen, but has shown no sign of ending its support for Riyadh. Human Rights Watch has said the US should stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia instead of calling on Riyadh to halt its deadly airstrikes on Yemeni civilians.
During remarks made to the UNSC last Monday, October 31, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called on Riyadh to halt its airstrikes on schools, hospitals and other civilian targets. HRW’s senior emergencies researcher Priyanka Motaparthy was quoted by ABC News as saying on Tuesday, November 1st: ‘Ambassador Power’s remarks, calling for an end to unlawful strikes that kill civilians and hit protected civilian objects, are certainly welcome.
‘But the US has repeatedly failed to acknowledge its own role providing vital support to those airstrikes by refuelling coalition planes and continuing to supply Saudi Arabia with US weapons.’
She noted that the rights group has on multiple occasions called on Washington to stop selling arms to the Saudis and to stop fuelling their jets. ‘It’s time for the government to go beyond just statements and suspend their support,’ she added.
During her remarks, Power condemned a Saudi airstrike on a funeral procession that killed more than 140 people in Sana’a in October. Following an investigation, the Saudis admitted they carried out the strike based on what they referred to as ‘bad information’. At the time, the investigation led by HRW found that the bomb used in the attack was US-made.
In September, Amnesty International also reported that a US manufactured bomb had been used in a Saudi strike against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah which claimed the lives of 19 people.
In August, the US State Department approved the sale of more than 130 Abrams tanks, 20 armoured recovery vehicles and other equipment worth about $1.15 billion to Saudi Arabia. Saudi-led bombardments have struck hospitals, markets and other places where civilians gather.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said last month that the death toll from the Saudi military aggression could rise even further as some areas have no medical facilities, and that people are often buried without any official record being made.
