Local Editor
The United Nations (UN) said Riyadh is using starvation as a tactic in its ongoing war against Yemen as well as against the Shia population inside Saudi Arabia itself.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made the declaration in a scathing report on Saudi rights violations in Yemen and inside Saudi Arabia.
The UN watchdog said children in the minority Shia communities inside Saudi Arabia continue to be subject to discrimination with regard to access to food, school, and justice.
The UN committee also rapped Saudi Arabia over a wide range of rights violations against children, including executing, stoning, flogging, and amputating them.
The UN body urged Riyadh to repeal laws that are lenient on the sexual abuse of children as well as their incarceration in solitary confinement.
Eighteen independent experts from the committee expressed deep concern in the report that Riyadh "still does not recognize girls as full subjects of rights and continues to severely discriminate (against) them in law and practice and to impose on them a system of male guardianship."
The experts also harshly criticized Riyadh for its airstrikes on Yemen, which have killed and maimed hundreds of children.
Meanwhile, the latest Saudi airstrike in Yemen has killed two civilians at a market in Hudaydah Province.
Several others were injured in the attack, which also inflicted widespread damage to numerous buildings and destroyed several cars in the area.
Separately, several people are feared dead in Saudi bombardment of the port city of Mokha over the past hours.
The war launched in an unsuccessful attempt to restore power to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Saudi ally who has resigned as Yemen’s president but seeks to forcefully return to power.
The war has done incredible harm both to the civilian population in the country as well as its critical infrastructure.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
