Ten civilians were killed on Saturday in a new raid for the Saudi-led coalition in Al-Hudaydah city in Yemen. Local Yemeni officials said that the raid targeted a checkpoint affiliated with the Houthi movement in Jabal Ras town, according to Reuters.
Al-Hudaydah city and port lies some 230 km away from the capital Sanaa, and is controlled by the Houthi movement. The port receives the biggest amount of humanitarian aid for the country.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of the Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen, after the Ansar Allah “Houthi” group backed by Iran, seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in September 2014.
The coalition includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Djibouti, Sudan, Senegal, Kuwait, Morocco, Malaysia, and Egypt, as well as the internationally recognised government of Yemen. Qatar was also part of the coalition before the coalition ended the Qatari forces’ mission following the gulf crisis between Doha on one side, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt on the other side.
The Houthi-affiliated TV Al-Maseera said that 17 people were killed in the coalition’s raid, and an unknown number of people were wounded. On the other side, a spokesperson from the Saudi-led coalition said in media statement that the coalition is investigating the incident.
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian operation as three in four Yemenis are in need of aid, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The conflict in Yemen resulted in the death of over 100,000 civilians and the hundreds of thousands were injured. More than 22 million people depend on humanitarian assistance or protection, about 8.4 million of whom are severely food insecure, and at risk of starvation.
