Local Editor
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday urged Western powers to halt weapons sale to Saudi Arabia until war crimes in Yemen stop.
“Rather than risk complicity in the next airstrike on a wedding or on a bus filled with children, the US, UK, and France should tell Saudi Arabia that weapons sales won’t continue until war crimes stop and those responsible are prosecuted,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said.
Whitson stated that the Saudi-led coalition have “indiscriminately attacked, forcibly disappeared, and blocked food and medicine to Yemeni civilians.”
“Governments around the globe can either do nothing while millions sink closer toward famine or use the leverage at their disposal to press the warring parties to end their abuses and impose sanctions on those obstructing aid,” Whitson added.
The armed conflict in Yemen that has been continuing for four-and-half years, has brought more than 22 million people that accounts to over three-quarters of the entire country's population, in dire need of humanitarian assistance or protection, of whom over eight million are severely food insecure and at risk of starvation, the UN has estimated.
The Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen in early 2015 has also wrecked the country's medical, water and sanitation systems, resulting in the outbreak of cholera and other deadly diseases. Thousands of civilians, especially children, have lost their lives either in airstrikes or fighting hunger.
Source: Yemenwatch.net
