Saudi Raids Leave Over 200 Yemenis Dead in 4 Months, UN Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The office of the United Nations' human rights office said deaths among civilians due to Saudi aggression against Yemen have been "steadily mounting" with more than 200 people killed and more than 500 wounded in four months, including 50 in one week.
The spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasain said on Friday that violence has been escalating across Yemen as the Saudi regime has renewed its attacks on the impoverished Arab country following the breakdown of UN-backed peace talks, AP reported.
She noted that July and August witnessed the worst incidents with eight children killed in a July 5 rocket attack in the eastern city of Marib. On Aug. 7, 16 civilians were killed in the kingdom’s airstrikes in the district of Nihm, east of the capital Sana’a.
The raids came after more than three months of UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait were suspended.
The talks made no headway, but UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed refused to call the negotiations a failure and said he would continue to consult with both sides to arrange further meetings.
A cease-fire that started on April 11 failed to hold as the Saudi regime repeatedly violated the truce.
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition led by the Saudi regime for nearly 17 months but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been launching deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Nearly 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.