Yemen
Yemen situation worsening faster than we can respond, says ICRC chief
Frédéric Burnand, correspondent in Geneva
The violent death of former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh following his implicit offer to make peace with Saudi Arabia, risks fuelling the proxy war in Yemen between Riyadh and Teheran, according to some analysts, while some now see a possible end to the conflict. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, as ICRC President Peter Maurer explains. Last Saturday, 48 hours before he was killed by his former allies – Houthi rebels supported by Iran --, Ali Abdallah Saleh had said he was ready to "turn the page” with Saudi...
Saudi-led strikes against children 'war crimes' in Yeman : HRW
AFP
A series of Saudi-led coalition air strikes which killed 26 children in Yemen in June amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. "The attacks, which struck four family homes and a grocery, in one case killing 14 members of the same family, caused indiscriminate loss of civilian life in violation of the laws of war. Such attacks carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes," the New York-based HRW said. Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels forced him into exile. HRW is urging the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is...
Attack on Yemen funeral violated humanitarian law - UN panel, according to IRIN
Samuel Oakford, IRIN
A UN panel of experts has accused the Saudi Arabia-led coalition of a deliberate “double tap” airstrike on a funeral gathering in Yemen earlier this month. In a report to the UN Security Council, obtained by IRIN, the panel says that the coalition’s second strike in particular “violated its obligations” under international law and it “did not take effective precautionary measures to minimize harm to civilians, including the first responders” on the scene. The strike in the capital of Sana’a killed over 100 people, including the city’s mayor, several high-level officials affiliated with...
Why does no one care about Yemen?
IRIN
Shortly before IRIN’s regular contributor in Yemen, Almigdad Mojalli, was killed in an airstrike, he took a trip to Jordan and had a disturbing realisation. He had been working tirelessly to cover the war that had driven his country from humanitarian disaster to humanitarian catastrophe. He had spared no detail in describing the civilian casualties, nor the survivors so desperate they were eating out of garbage bins. But in Jordan, he discovered that the war hardly made the news. Locals were shocked to hear what he had to say. Mojalli knew it was a struggle to get an English-speaking...
opinion : Fulfilling our Responsibility to Protect in Yemen
Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Jennifer Welsh, UN Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect
According to the latest United Nations estimate, at least 1,916 civilians have been killed in Yemen since 26 March 2015 as a result of the fighting between the Saudi- led coalition, the Houthis, and their respective allies. While both parties are responsible for the deaths of civilians, the majority have reportedly been killed as a result of air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition. The United Nations Secretary-General has repeatedly called on the parties to comply with their obligation under international humanitarian law (IHL) to protect civilians. However, reports indicate...