Local Editor

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, deplored on Thursday the recent destruction to the pre-Islamic walled city of Baraqish in Yemen, while also reiterating her appeal to parties involved in the conflict to refrain from targeting the country’s unique cultural heritage and using heritage sites for military purposes.

UNESCO said on its website that it has received information and photographic evidence revealing that the Minean Temple of Nakrah (dating from the first millennium BCE) appears to have suffered extensive damage, possibly as a result of aerial bombardment, during the weekend. 

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression on Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country since March 26. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].

"I am deeply grieved by the senseless destruction of one of the richest cultures in the Arab region, of the Arabia Felix of a time", Bokova said. 

"I once again urge all parties to refrain from any military use or targeting of cultural heritage sites and monuments, in respect of their obligations under international humanitarian law, notably the 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols", she added. 

Moreover, this latest act of destruction comes only days after the bombing of the outskirts of the capital of Yemen, Sana’a, a property inscribed on the World Heritage List in Danger, and is among the growing number of historical sites in Yemen that have suffered collateral damage from the armed conflict, including the World Heritage sites of the Old Cities of Sana’ and Zabid, as well as the historic centres of Sada’a, Mukalla and Taez in Yemen.