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Red Cross Condemns Children’s Death in Latest Yemen Shelling

Sunday’s statement by the Geneva-based ICRC came less than a week after an international rights group said the Saudi-led coalition was killing children in what amounts to war crimes
The UN’s annual report on children and armed conflict showed that 785 children were killed and more than  1,000 others were wounded in Yemen in 2015.
The UN’s annual report on children and armed conflict showed that 785 children were killed and more than  1,000 others were wounded in Yemen in 2015.

The Red Cross on Sunday condemned the killing of children in Yemen by apparent shelling, saying Friday’s attack in the city of Taiz was a reminder of the “immense suffering” endured by civilians in the war-ravaged Arab nation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross called for protecting civilians in Yemen’s civil war, which pits Houthis fighters and their allies against the US-backed Saudi coalition, AP reported.

It said three children were killed and nine wounded in the incident, but Yemeni security officials have said as many as four were killed and 10 wounded. They say the slain children were between four and seven years old.

“We cannot turn a blind eye on the rising number of civilians injured or killed as a result of indiscriminate attacks in Yemen’s conflict,” the statement quoted Robert Mardini, ICRC’s Middle East chief, as saying. “We urge all warring sides to take every precaution to spare civilians.”

He added: “What happened on Friday is yet another stark reminder of the immense suffering that civilians across Yemen are enduring in their daily lives.”

Sunday’s statement by the Geneva-based ICRC came less than a week after an international rights group said the Saudi-led coalition was killing children in what amounts to war crimes. In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch documented the deaths of 26 children killed in five coalition airstrikes since June.

It urged the United Nations to place the coalition on its “list of shame,” a blacklist of countries that violate child rights. The group also called for an international investigation into possible war crimes.

The UN’s annual report on children and armed conflict showed that 785 children were killed and more than 1,000 others were wounded in Yemen in 2015, with 60% of the casualties caused by coalition airstrikes. The children are among more than 10,000 people killed in the war, which has also fomented a deadly cholera epidemic.

  Airstrike Kills 12 Civilians

In the latest shelling, twelve Yemeni civilians including women and children have been killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition northeast of the capital Sanaa, an official, residents and Houthis’ media said, Al Jazeera reported.

The attack, which residents said claimed the lives of four children and two women, hit a vehicle in the Hareeb al-Qarameesh district, about 70km from Sanaa, the capital, on Saturday.

All the passengers were killed in the strike, reported Saba news agency, which is run by the Houthi fighters.

Hareeb al-Qarameesh is controlled by the Houthis, who have held control over Sanaa and northwestern parts of Yemen for the past three years.

The coalition has been repeatedly criticized for attacking civilians during the conflict.

More than 10,000 people have been killed and more than 40,000 injured since the outbreak of the conflict, according to the UN.

A cholera outbreak has also claimed the lives of more than 2,048 people since April, with more than 600,000 suspected cases across the country, according to the World Health Organization and Yemen’s Health Ministry.

 The UN has warned that fighting in Yemen has pushed the country to the brink of famine, with 80% of the country’s children desperately in need of aid, posing the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world”.

 

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