Local Editor
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an independent investigation into a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen that killed dozens of children.
The airstrike on Thursday hit a bus carrying children from a summer camp in a busy market area in the northern Majz District, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement.
Condemning the attack, Guterres called for "an independent and prompt investigation" into the incident, Haq said.
In the statement, Guterres added that all parties must "respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack."
He emphasized that all parties must take "constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations".
According to the Yemeni Health Ministry, 50 children were killed and 77 injured in the strike. The International Committee for the Red Cross said a hospital it supports in northern Saada province had received 29 bodies of "mainly children" younger than 15, and 40 injured, including 30 children.
The attack came a week after a Saudi-led airstrike hit a busy fish market and the entrance to the country's largest hospital, Al-Thawra, in the port city of Hodeida, killing 55 civilians and wounding 170 others.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of Gulf States against Houthi revolutionaries in northern Yemen.
The war in Yemen is now the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people -- three-quarters of the population -- in desperate need of aid and protection, the UN says.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
