Saudi Coalition Bombing Yemen Back to Stone Age

The US-backed Saudi-led coalition is pushing Yemen towards an “apocalyptic situation”, aid agencies warned on Wednesday, the 1,000th day since the beginning of a military intervention by Riyadh which has rained bombs on the country and starved its people amid conditions akin to a “medieval siege”.

Millions of Yemenis continue to be deprived of food, fuel, and medicine as Saudi Arabia maintains its blockade on the northern ports of Yemen, Middle East Eye reported.

The blockade has further compounded the precarious situation inside Yemen and, according to a report published by Oxfam on Wednesday, pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine.

And the war seems to be moving into a more dangerous phase.

On Tuesday an attempted missile strike on a royal palace in the Saudi capital was launched by Houthi fighters. The missile, the third in six weeks launched from Yemen, was intercepted by Saudi air defenses.

Nearly 5,300 civilians have been killed while three million have been forced to flee their homes over the past 1,000 days, according to Oxfam.

The UK-based charity also noted that one million people are suspected to have contracted cholera, a disease caused by contaminated water, in the world’s worst outbreak ever recorded.

Civilian casualties due to the violence are being dwarfed by deaths due to disease and hunger, although exact figures have not been collected.

Save the Children warned last month that 50,000 children would die by the end of the year, with the UN warning that one child was dying every 10 minutes from preventable causes including diarrhea, breathing infections and malnutrition.

Oxfam said the countries that had supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons, including the UK and the US, had fuelled the destruction and called on world leaders to pressure all parties to the conflict to “reach an immediate ceasefire to end the bloodshed”.

Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s chief executive said that the UK in particular had to act decisively because of its responsibility for Yemen on the United Nations Security Council.

  Mass Starvation, a Weapon of War

“For 1,000 days, huge amounts of sophisticated modern weapons have pounded Yemen. We are now witnessing a medieval siege where mass starvation is being used as a weapon of war,” said Goldring.

Oxfam’s call for action was echoed by Tamer Kirolos, Yemen country director for Save the Children.

 “We cannot allow the war in Yemen to continue for even one more day. If those in power, or those with the influence to end this war, do not bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict they will be complicit in condemning the children of Yemen to even more death and misery.”

The humanitarian situation inside Yemen has continued to worsen with the cost of helping the millions suffering increasing by the month, according to Oxfam.

The report noted that despite Britain and the US being the most significant donors to UN appeals to help Yemen, both countries had pocketed “four times the amount of the Yemen 2017 UN appeal” in arms sales during the conflict.

“While the US and the UK are among the biggest donors to the 2017 appeal —representing together over 46% of the funding— they are also benefiting from over $10 billion worth of arms sales,” said Oxfam.

A Saudi-led coalition has been waging an air campaign against Houthi fighters since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall fugitive president Abd-Rabbu Mansur Hadi, who is aligned with Riyadh.

  Airstrikes Continue

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the Saudi-led coalition launched fresh airstrikes on Tuesday.

Residents said at least nine members of the same family, including at least five children, were killed in one airstrike which hit their home in Wadi Khair in southern Yemen’s Shabwa Province.

Coalition aircraft have been providing air support for southern fighters and pro-government troops as part of a push to clear the Houthis from Shabwa and the family was killed in an apparently mistaken attack.

Residents also reported that coalition aircraft bombed a new parliament house, part of a government compound being built in Sanaa, causing damage but no casualties.

The coalition had no immediate comment on the report but says it does not target civilians.