Al Houthi supply route to Sana’a cut off
Emirates Red Crescent comes to the aid of injured civilians in Al Jah village
Yemen’s pro-government forces yesterday said they have seized control of a strategically important area near Hodeida from Al Houthis and cut off a major rebel supply route linking the coastal city to the militant-held capital Sana’a. The Giants Brigades added in a statement that its forces have recaptured the district of Kilo 16 on the eastern edge of Hodeida in western Yemen. Kilo 16 is regarded as a gateway to Hodeida, the target of a months-long campaign by government forces supported by an Arab Saudi-led coalition.
AYemeni family was hit by a mortar shell fired by Al Houthi militia at their home in a village in Al Jah, Hodeida Governorate. The latest aggression is part of a series of attacks by the militias against civilians, especially children.
The shell, which was fired on a residential neighbourhood, injured Muslah Saeed Al Ahdal and his children, Khaldoun, Nadher and Duaa, who are aged between one to five years. It also injured a fourth child from another family named Nesrin, who is aged below five years.
In a quick response to their humanitarian situation, the Emirates Red Crescent provided relief assistance to the injured in order to alleviate their suffering on account of the difficult humanitarian conditions they are experiencing as a result of continuous violations by Al Houthi militias against innocent civilians.
Hamad Al Kaabi, UAE Humanitarian Operations Deputy Director for Yemen, said that the provision of emergency relief assistance to the injured comes within the framework of the UAE’s humanitarian responsibility towards the brothers in Yemen to help them overcome the difficult conditions inflicted by Al Houthi militias who are consistently intimidating the people.
For his part, Adham Al Shabhi, Deputy Director of Al Khokha Surgical Hospital, said some of the injured were received in serious condition, pointing out they received immediate and appropriate medical care upon arrival at the hospital.
Indiscriminate shelling
From September 2014 to September 2018, 5,580 Yemeni children were reported killed and injured. The indiscriminate shelling by Al Houthis on houses in Al Jah comes in the wake of a spate of defeats in Hodeida Governorate, and are seen as acts of revenge against local people who rejected them, and are part of their repeated violations of human rights, children’s rights, and international charters and laws that criminalise the targeting of innocent civilians and civilian facilities.
Since the Al Houthi coup, the number of people killed, injured and kidnapped in Yemen has exceeded 67,000.
During his briefing in Abu Dhabi, Mohammad Askar, Yemeni Minister of Human Rights, accused the militias of deliberately attacking populated areas, electricity stations and water wells with mortars and Katyusha rockets, as well as using civilians as human shields in Hodeida, while affirming that the acts of depredation and malpractices of Al Houthi militias have been exposed to the international community.