The airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition that hit a hospital in Yemen on Monday can be considered a war crime, Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Program Deputy Director said in a statement.
Advertisement
“The panel has documented violations of global humanitarian law and worldwide human rights law committed by the Houthi-Saleh forces, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and forces affiliated to the legitimate government of Yemen”, said the report presented to the Security Council.
The conflict began early a year ago, when President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi resigned and fled to the southern city of Aden after Houthi rebels seized and consolidated their hold on Sanaa.
Separately on Saturday, the Houthis and Saleh loyalists convened parliament in Sanaa for the first time in almost two years in defiance of the Saudi-based Hadi, who called the parliamentary session “invalid”.
Parliamentary sources said 91 lawmakers in the 301-member national assembly attended, and all voted in favour of the council created last week. According to the constitution, more than 150 lawmakers must be present for voting to take place.
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.
United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has described the rebel governing council as a violation of commitments to the peace process.
Yemen, already the Middle East’s most impoverished country before the onset of war, has since been left on the precipice of starvation, while more than 2 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to a tally by the Associated Press. After peace talks collapsed last week, the Houthis and the GPC went on to set up a governing council to rule parts of the country they control.
“Sanaa worldwide airport will be reopened to United Nations flights and those of other agencies from Monday”, a coalition statement said.
At least 6,400 people have been killed in the conflict, around half of them civilians. “The return to full-scale hostilities will only drive the humanitarian needs further”.
The United Nations had also voiced concern over the increased fighting in Yemen during the past week, warning of its humanitarian consequences with more than 80% of the population needing aid.
The government accuses the rebels of having “robbed” the Central Bank to finance their war, leaving the “public treasury bankrupt”. “Each side is responsible for the civilian casualties”, Shamdasani said.
Advertisement
Yemeni forces have killed three Saudi troops in a retaliatory attack launched after a day of deadly airstrikes by the kingdom’s fighter planes.
