UN: Civilian Death Toll from Yemen War Nears 2,800
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations said the civilian death toll from nine months of fighting in Yemen has reached nearly 2,800 after at least 81 people were killed in December.
The UN human rights office said Tuesday another 109 civilians were wounded last month. That brings its total count to 2,795 dead and 5,324 wounded since March, the Associated Press reported.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly airstrikes against the Houthi movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
The Houthis say their rise to power is a revolution against corrupt officials beholden to Saudi Arabia and the West.
The UN office said it received allegations that coalition forces used cluster bombs in Hajjah province. A UN team says it found remnants of 29 cluster submunitions in the village of al-Odair, the Associated Press reported.
The United Nations has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises, alongside emergencies in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq. It says more than 21 million people in Yemen need help, or about 80 percent of the population.
