The civil war and Saudi-led airstrikes have since killed over 6,500 people, mostly civilians, and displaced other three million.
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Kerry was in Saudi Arabia, where he met with Foreign Affairs Minister Adel al-Jubeir to discuss the 18-month conflict between the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government that has been exiled to Saudi Arabia.
“Such a manifestly protracted unjust situation must no longer be tolerated by the worldwide community”, al-Hussein insisted, demanding the creation of “an global, independent investigative body”.
On Thursday, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called for an global investigation into rights abuses and violence in Yemen’s civil war, insisting that a domestic panel set up to look into violations has not been up to the task.
After Reuters filed the report, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement that, “Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged”.
The UN called Thursday for a probe into alleged human rights violations by all sides in Yemen’s conflict in which civilians have paid the heaviest price in human lives.
The UN Human Rights Council a year ago voted to defer a humanitarian investigation of the conflict to the Yemeni government. An estimated 3,800 civilians have been killed since the Saudi-led airstrikes began.
She said HRW found evidence that USA -supplied bombs killed 97 civilians, including 25 children, in airstrikes on a market in northwestern Yemen in March. The talks were suspended because the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Saleh, refused a peace deal and announced a 10-member council to govern Yemen.
Yemen has been ravaged by civil war since late 2014, when Houthi rebels overran capital Sanaa and a number of other provinces, forcing Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.
– On August 4, the coalition acknowledged “shortcomings” in two out of eight cases it had investigated of air strikes on civilian targets.
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Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups have similarly urged the US, UK and France to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia until it curtails its air strikes in Yemen. Last Thursday, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) evacuated its staff from six hospitals in Yemen due to frequently occurring “indiscriminate shelling” by the Saudi-led coalition.
