Yemen Denounces Saudi-Led Coalition’s Use of Cluster Bombs in Sana’a
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights censured the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition over deploying cluster bombs against a residential neighborhood in the country’s capital province of Sana’a, seriously injuring members of a family.
The ministry, in a statement released by the official SABA news agency, warned that cluster munitions pose a serious danger to the lives of civilians, especially women and children, if they come in close contact with them.
The statement added that the alliance has used thousands of cluster bombs on residential areas, leaving many civilians dead or injured. Unexploded submunitions risk the lives of locals in the targeted areas as well.
The ministry further highlighted that thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have either lost their lives or sustained grave injuries since March 2015 as Saudi-led military aircraft continue to strike various areas across Yemen.
On Wednesday, a couple and their three children were injured when Saudi-led warplanes dropped cluster bombs on a residential neighborhood in al-Subaha neighborhood of Sana'a province. Their house was also badly damaged in the bombardment.
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights later held member states of the Saudi-led coalition and their mercenaries fully responsible for all crimes and perpetrations being perpetrated against the Yemeni nation.
The ministry called on the United Nations and the Security Council to stop the ongoing Saudi-led military aggression and blockade, and establish an independent and impartial international commission to investigate all crimes committed by the coalition and its proxies in Yemeni regions.
Separately, the Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (SCMCHA) decried the Saudi-led coalition’s use of cluster munitions in al-Subaha neighborhood, stating it is not the first time the alliance has committed such a crime.
The SCMCHA also denounced the shameful international silence on the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s continued attacks on residential regions and farms with utter disregard for civilian lives.
The council then called on the UN to take up its humanitarian duties, and put pressure on the coalition of aggression to stop its military campaign and all-out blockade against Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.
More than half of Yemen’s hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or closed during the war by the Saudi-led coalition, which is supported militarily by the UK, US and other Western nations.
At least 80 percent of the 28 million-strong population is also reliant on aid to survive in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.