A coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign against the rebels in March 2015. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemeni security and medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media, say the strike killed and wounded some 20 of the hospital’s staff and patients.
Advertisement
Yemen’s parliament unanimously ratified Saturday the “Higher Political Council” to unilaterally rule the country, lifting the power and legitimacy of the internationally recognized exiled president and his government, the Houthi rebels-controlled state TV reported.
At least nine people were killed in a bombardment on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, earlier this month when a potato chip factory was hit.
“@MSF received today 21 injured & 10 deaths in Haydan #Saada”.
Hadi is now in exile in Saudi Arabia, while his forces, backed by the coalition, are waging an offensive to try to recapture Sanaa from the Houthis and troops loyal to their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
According to the constitution, more than 150 lawmakers must be present for a vote to be held.
United Nations envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has described the rebel governing council as a violation of commitments to the peace process.
Last week, he suspended UN-brokered talks between rebels and the government in Kuwait.
Doctors Without Borders, a Paris-based relief agency also known as MSF, said the children were killed Saturday in coalition raids on a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province.
The 15-month conflict has also taken a horrifying toll on the country’s youth, with UNICEF warning that an estimated 320,000 children face life-threatening malnutrition.
The conflict has claimed more than 6,500 lives, about half of them civilians, and has plunged Yemen, already the Middle East’s poorest nation, into a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of starvation.
The United Nations suspended peace talks in the country last week, saying its peace envoy would negotiate separately with the two governments in the coming weeks before bringing them together.
Yemen has been ravaged by civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran capital Sanaa and a number of other provinces, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.
Advertisement
The coalition meanwhile announced that Saudi air defences on Saturday intercepted a Scud missile fired from Yemen towards the kingdom.
