The War in Yemen Goes On

Nearly a third of all Gulf coalition air raids on Yemen have hit civilian targets including hospitals, schools and food stores, new data has revealed.

According to the Yemen Data Project, more than 18,400 civilians have been killed or injured by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies since they launched a bombing campaign in 2015 to oust the Iran-backed Houthis and restore the government.

Over 8,600, a quarter of them women and children, were killed across tens of thousands of raids, marking 70 per cent of the total civilian death toll documented by rights groups.

The same report said over the last five years coalition aircraft have bombed medical facilities including hospitals and clinics 83 times, killing 95 civilians and injuring a further 116. 

Over 60 food stores have also been hit, alongside 134 water and electricity facilities.

“The data clearly shows that over the five years [the coalition] has been consistently hitting civilian targets. That’s indisputable,” said the Yemen Data Project’s Iona Craig, adding that on average the alliance causes 10 civilian casualties a day.  “It’s not just hospitals and medical facilities you have to take into account. It’s the bombing of water and electricity infrastructure, the impact on food supply lines with food storage facilities and crucial road bridges being hit too,” she added.

According to Oxfam, 17 million people – more than half the population – have no access to clean water.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana released an extensive report last week  saying in total between 2015 and 2018 there were 120  attacks on the health care sector committed by all sides of the conflict.

It said the Gulf coalition, its affiliated forces, the Houthis and their allies have all damaged or destroyed health facilities through airstrikes and shelling, occupying medical facilities and excluding civilian use as well as assaulting medical professionals.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana released an extensive report last week  saying in total between 2015 and 2018 there were 120  attacks on the health care sector committed by all sides of the conflict.


Mwatana spokesperson Osamah al-Fakih said it was not just bombing campaigns and artillery fire which had destroyed the country.

“All sides have committed violations including enforced disappearances, torture, as well as child recruitment,” he told The Independent. “The Gulf coalition has also restricted humanitarian access to Yemen through a blockade and closure of Sanaa international airport. It has also established arms groups in different parts of the country, a huge long-term problem, undermining the future of Yemen. “

Human Rights Watch warned the training of proxy groups was behind a new crisis brewing in the east of the country, Mahra, a province which until now has escaped most of the conflict. In a report on Wednesday it said Saudi military and Yemeni forces it was affiliated to, have carried serious abuses arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and illegal transfer of detainees to Saudi Arabia. 

Former detainees said that they were accused of supporting Saudi Arabia’s opponents and had been interrogated, and tortured at an informal detention facility at the city’s airport.

“Saudi forces and their Yemeni allies’ serious abuses against local-Mahra residents is another horror to add to the list of the Saudi-led coalition’s unlawful conduct in Yemen,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi Arabia is severely harming its reputation with Yemenis when it carries out these abusive practices and holds no one accountable for them.”