UN confirms coalition’s attack on African migrants’ camp in Saada

SANAA, Nov. 29 (YPA) – The United Nations has confirmed Saudi-led coalition’s responsibility for targeting a camp of African migrants in al-Raqu market in Monabeh district of Saad province for the second time, killing 20 and wounding 45 in both attacks.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen on Thursday condemned the coalition’s attacks on civilians, saying that “new air attacks have killed more civilians in Saada, northern Yemen.”

“At least 10 civilians were killed and 22 others, including four children and a woman, were injured during an air strike on Wednesday at al-Raque market in Saada’s district of Monabeh,” the office said in a statement.

“This attack comes just one week after a similar incident that killed 10 civilians in the same place,” the statement said. It explained that “many of the dead and wounded are Ethiopian immigrants.”

More than 120,600 refugees and migrants from countries of east Africa have arrived in Yemen in 2019, according to the UN Office’s statement.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande denounced the continued targeting of civilians by the coalition. “Every morning, the price of this war has become unbearable,” she said.

Grande stressed, in the statement, that the international humanitarian law criminalizes targeting of civilians in any way, saying “Every indiscriminate attack on civilians is an unjustified violation of international humanitarian law.”

In 2017, the Saudi-UAE-led war coalition has already bombed boats carrying displaced people from the Horn of Africa off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 45 people dead and wounded, according to international media at that time.

YPA