Over 9,000 civilians killed in Yemen by Saudi coalition airstrikes: US website

The American “Modern Diplomacy” website said that since seven years of the war on Yemen, civilians have been killed in large numbers. It added that the Yemeni people are suffering from hunger more than ever and that this war has torn Yemen apart during the past years, yet its citizens are struggling hard to live.

According to the United Nations Development Program, more than 370,000 people have died since the war began in 2015, and 60 percent of these deaths come from indirect factors including lack of food, water and medical care. The United Nations describes it as the worst humanitarian crisis on this planet. As a result, 80 percent of the population in Yemen needs humanitarian assistance. In addition, 11 million children need humanitarian assistance in order to survive.

Over the past seven years, the website pointed out, the main fighting has been between the Sanaa forces and the Saudi-led coalition. The coalition enjoys the support of Western countries including the United States and the United Kingdom and is supplied with weapons from countries such as France, Canada and Germany. The Saudi-led intervention includes relentless air attacks. They have been bombing hospitals and schools, and have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians.

According to the website, the Saudi-led coalition launched more than 150 airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen, yet hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the fighting or its indirect effects, according to estimates issued by the The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), which monitors war zones across all regions. Around the world, the devastating air campaign alone by the Saudi-led coalition has killed nearly 24,000 combatants, and nearly 9,000 civilians.

Modern Diplomacy website added that children and civilians were killed as a result of air strikes in Yemen that targeted detention centers in the north of the country. The United Nations reported that January 2022 was Yemen’s deadliest month for civilians. Saudi attacks on civilian targets have become routine, damaging infrastructure, homes and hospitals, in addition to farms, weddings, funerals and schools.

According to the human rights organization Mwatana, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched three attacks in Yemen in late January 2022, which appear to violate the laws of war and resulted in the killing of at least 80 civilians, including 3 children, and the injury of 156, including two children.

Moreover, the website noted that the most terrible thing is that Yemenis are dying from hunger, poverty and disease more than the actual fighting. While the Yemeni economy is collapsing, and its humanitarian crisis is getting worse, and the conflict in the poorest country in the Arab world has become more brutal, which would lead to the worst humanitarian crisis in contemporary history.

The site opinion that there were hopes that the escalation of the Yemeni conflict would recede when US President Joe Biden took office last year due to the expected changes and developments in US foreign policy. However, this year, the conflict has worsened. Internally, regionally and internationally, the violence that Yemen is currently witnessing has increased.

The website added that the armistice agreement includes the resumption of commercial flights to and from the capital, Sanaa, and Jordan, and also allows oil tankers to dock in the port of Hodeidah. It is expected that the two-month extension will allow the reopening of roads linking cities and regions, the safe return of more displaced people, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to those who have been cut off from it for a long time due to the hostilities in Yemen.