Yemen was rocked on Tuesday by two deadly car bombs, a day after Saudi-led airstrikes and on-the-ground fighting killed almost 200 people across the war-torn country. The branch of Islamic State group in Yemen claimed responsibility for the explosions.
One of the explosives-laden cars detonated near a hospital in the capital Sana’a, which the local Saba news agency said killed and injured “numerous” people, while another killed around 10 people in Al-Bayda, capital of a province in the country’s battle-weary south, Reuters reported.
Saudi-led coalition airstrikes and clashes killed at least 176 fighters and civilians in Yemen on Monday, residents and media said, the highest daily toll since the Arab air offensive began more than three months ago.
On Monday, 63 people were reportedly killed in airstrikes on Amran Province in the north, among them 30 people at a market, Saba said. Saudi warplanes also killed about 60 people at a livestock market in the town of Al-Foyoush in the south.
Humanitarian Funds in Limbo
The UN said on Tuesday it had received just 13% of the $1.6 billion needed for aid to Yemen, where three months of fighting has forced more than one million people to flee their homes.
“The operations are critically underfunded,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency told reporters in Geneva.
Nearly a third of the funds received had come from the US, which pitched in $63 million, while Japan had handed over $19 million and the European Commission had given $15 million.
Saudi Arabia, behind the devastating airstrikes, has pledged $274 million towards the UN appeal, but none of that cash has yet materialized. Laerke insisted that the UN humanitarian operation in Yemen “does not stand or fall” with the money pledged by the Saudis.
The $1.6 billion requested is meant to cover aid, including food, water and shelter, to 11.7 million of the most vulnerable people in need. That is only just over half of the some 21 million people (80% of the total population) estimated to need assistance.
Civilian Death Toll
In a separate report on Tuesday, The UN said the number of civilians killed in three months of violence has risen above 1,500.
The UN high commissioner for human rights said at least 92 civilians were killed and another 179 injured between June 17 and July 3.
It said that brings the total number of civilians killed since March 27 to 1,528, while 3,605 have been injured.
A Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries launched airstrikes on Yemen in late March to restore the country’s fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to power and repel Houthi forces.
