Yemen: UN Urges Investigation Into SaudiLed Coalition Air Raids

The UN chief has condemned air raids by the Saudi-led coalition on Saada city and called for an investigation into the attacks that killed more than 70 people in Yemen.

“The Secretary-General calls for prompt, effective and transparent investigations into these incidents to ensure accountability,” Antonio Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

A detention centre holding migrants in Saada city was bombed on Friday. Basheer Omar, a Red Cross spokesperson in Yemen, said rescuers continued to search for survivors. He said more than 100 people had been killed and wounded, according to the Red Cross count.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels and an aid group on Saturday claimed that the death toll had climbed to at least 82.

Al Jazeera, however, could not independently verify the casualty figures.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) put the number of wounded alone at “about 200”. Ahmed Mahat, MSF’s head of mission in Yemen, said they had reports of “many bodies still at the scene of the air strike, many missing people”.

Another Saudi air raid on Friday in the port city of Hodeidah – later confirmed by satellite photos analysed by the AP news agency – hit a telecommunication centre that is key to Yemen’s connection to the internet. Early on Saturday, the internet remained down.

Yemen’s Houthi Health Minister Taha al-Motawakel has appealed to the international community for medical aid. He accused the Saudi coalition of deliberately targeting civilians.

“We consider this a war crime against humanity. The world should take responsibility at this critical moment in human history,” he said.

The Houthi Al Masirah TV satellite news channel said the strike on the telecommunications building killed and wounded an unspecified number of people. It released chaotic footage of people digging through rubble for a body as aid workers assisted bloodied survivors.

Save the Children said at least three children were killed in the Hodeidah attack.

Air raids also hit near the capital, Sanaa, held by the Houthis since late 2014. On Tuesday, at least 14 people were killed in Saudi air raids in Sanaa. Intense campaign

The intense campaign comes after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed a drone and missile attack that struck inside the United Arab Emirates capital earlier this week – a major escalation in the conflict in Yemen where the Saudi-led coalition, with the UAE as a member, has been carrying out air raids since 2015.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Al Attab, reporting from Sanaa, said that the attacks have drawn nationwide condemnation by the Houthis and different human rights groups in Yemen.

“The Houthi-run ministry of human rights has called for an investigation into the attacks,” he said.

Eight aid agencies operating in Yemen said in a joint statement that they were “horrified” the killing in Saada, which included women and children.

“Migrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families, Yemeni civilians injured by the dozens, is a picture we never hoped to wake up to in Yemen,” said Gillian Moyes, Save the Children’s director in Yemen.

Jamal Benomar, a former UN special envoy for Yemen, said the air raids are the latest in a series of war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition.

“There has been no accountability whatsoever since the start of this war. It’s a failure not only from the United States but the permanent members of the Security Council.

“The reality is that all the five members instead of cooperating to try to find a way on how to compel the Saudis to end the war in Yemen and compel the Yemeni sides to enter in good faith in a political process, to end this strife, they have in fact been competing for lucrative contracts with Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” he said.