Local Editor
States should take immediate action to prevent further suffering for millions of Yemenis stranded between the horrific violations of the Saudi/Emirati-led coalition and other parties to the conflict in Yemen, Mwatana for Human Rights said in a statement Tuesday marking four years after coalition military operations began in Yemen on March 26, 2015.
Between March 2015 and January 2019, Mwatana documented 328 coalition airstrikes in 13 Yemeni governorates that killed at least 3,325 civilians, including 749 children and 280 women, and wounded at least 2,547 civilians, including 595 children and 247 women. Some of these attacks likely amount to war crimes.
“It is shameful that four years after the escalation of the armed conflict in Yemen, the US, UK, France and other European countries continue to sell arms to members of the coalition, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” said Radhya Almutawakel, the chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights. “These countries have a choice to make—take the side of Yemeni civilians and prioritize justice and peace or continue fueling the war with weapons and emboldening war criminals with impunity.”
In a recent report, Day Of Judgment: The Role of the US and Europe in Civilians Death, Destruction, and Trauma in Yemen, Mwatana documented the use of weapons manufactured in the United States and United Kingdom in multiple coalition attacks that appeared to violate the laws of war. The coalition also used an Italian-made weapon in an October 8, 2016 attack on a house in the village of Deir Al-Hajari in Hodeida governorate.
The coalition should immediately stop its indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects and hold war criminals accountable, Mwatana for Human Rights said. Countries supporting the coalition, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, should stop arms sales to coalition countries and end other forms of military support to the campaign in Yemen.
“The coalition is relying on the fact that other countries have turned a blind eye to their abuses,” Almutawakel added.
Every year, more and more Yemenis—already numbering in the many millions—are going hungry and getting sick. The coalition should urgently open Sana’a International Airport, so civilians can travel unimpeded, including to receive urgent medical care abroad, and allow critical life-saving supplies like food and medicine to enter all of Yemen’s seaports, including Hodeida, Saleef and Ras Issa, unimpeded and without delay, Mwatana said.
“The world’s worst humanitarian crisis deserves the world’s attention, and states should increase their focus on Yemen and move effectively to stop the coalition … from further destruction, and start working seriously to save the lives of millions,” Almutawakel said.
The conflict in Yemen escalated on March 26, 2015. Since then, civilians have suffered from serious international humanitarian law violations and human rights abuses committed by all parties to the conflict. The coalition launched aerial attacks and closed Yemeni air and sea ports.
“Talking about coalition violations does not imply that other parties to the conflict have clean human rights records. States should push for an end to all abuses, including making absolutely clear that war criminals from all parties are to be held to account,” Almutawakel said.
In the areas controlled by the resigned regime of former President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the coalition, pro-Hadi forces and UAE proxy forces, like the Security Belt, Hadrami and Shabwani Elite Forces, have also committed violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and recruitment of children.
The 2017 and 2018 reports of the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee Panel of Experts documented the ways the coalition has empowered armed groups in areas of Yemen under its control. Fissures are erupting, armed groups are proliferating and Yemeni aspirations for peace, the rule of law and citizenship are being undermined. Mwatana, as well as international human rights organizations and the Human Rights Council Group of Eminent Experts, documented abuses by some of the groups that have been empowered.
“The Saudi/Emirati-led coalition’s destruction doesn’t end with the indiscriminate air raids on civilians and civilian infrastructure, but extends to undermining the lives of millions of Yemenis and their dream of a peaceful state by empowering armed groups under their control and obstructing the return of the rule of law, furthering an already fertile environment that has allowed massive violations of human rights to go unchecked,” Almutawakel said.
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Source: Mwatana For Human Rights, Edited by Website Team
