Saudi-led strikes ‘kill 68 civilians in one day’
BBC Online
The United Nations says two air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen’s civil war killed at least 68 civilians in a single day this week.
Humanitarian co-ordinator Jamie McGoldrick said Tuesday’s first raid, on a busy market in Taiz province, left 54 people dead.
The second, in Hudaydah province, killed 14 members of the same family.
Mr McGoldrick said the incidents proved the “complete disregard for human life” by all parties to this “absurd war”. More than 8,750 people have been killed and 50,000 injured
since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict between forces loyal to Yemen’s government and the rebel Houthi movement in March 2015, according to the UN.
The fighting and a blockade by the coalition has also left 20.7 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world’s largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that is thought to have killed 2,227 people since April. Media captionAfter 1,000 days of civil war in Yemen, 8m people are at risk of starvation.
Mr McGoldrick said on Thursday that he was deeply disturbed by the mounting civilian casualties caused by “escalated and indiscriminate attacks”. Initial reports from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that eight children were among the 54 people killed in Tuesday’s strike on the “crowded popular market” in the al-Hayma sub-district of Taizz, he said.
The United Nations says two air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen’s civil war killed at least 68 civilians in a single day this week.
Humanitarian co-ordinator Jamie McGoldrick said Tuesday’s first raid, on a busy market in Taiz province, left 54 people dead.
The second, in Hudaydah province, killed 14 members of the same family.
Mr McGoldrick said the incidents proved the “complete disregard for human life” by all parties to this “absurd war”. More than 8,750 people have been killed and 50,000 injured
since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict between forces loyal to Yemen’s government and the rebel Houthi movement in March 2015, according to the UN.
The fighting and a blockade by the coalition has also left 20.7 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world’s largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that is thought to have killed 2,227 people since April. Media captionAfter 1,000 days of civil war in Yemen, 8m people are at risk of starvation.
Mr McGoldrick said on Thursday that he was deeply disturbed by the mounting civilian casualties caused by “escalated and indiscriminate attacks”. Initial reports from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that eight children were among the 54 people killed in Tuesday’s strike on the “crowded popular market” in the al-Hayma sub-district of Taizz, he said.