UN: Civilian Casualties in Yemen Average 123 Per Week

Local Editor

The United Nations’ refugee agency said Friday there were nearly 1,500 civilian casualties in Yemen from August through October, the latest grim tally to emerge from a four-year war as opposing parties hold talks in Sweden.

The announcement came as Yemen’s national delegation and the resigned regime of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, met for a second day [Friday] for UN-sponsored talks aimed at halting the bloodshed.

UNHCR urged the two sides to do more to protect civilians, saying data from Yemen shows an average of 123 civilian martyred and wounded every week during the three-month period, in a war that has killed at least 16,000 civilians.

The UN body said of the 1,478 civilian casualties, 33 percent were women and children. That's a total of 217 women and children martyred and 268 wounded.

On Friday, at the venue in a castle in the town of Rimbo, north of Stockholm, UN envoy Martin Griffiths and various delegates from Yemen were seen walking on the grounds.

A delegation from the Yemeni Ansarullah movement later said that talks had been divided into five main sections, including opening up Sanaa airport for aid, adding that the prisoner swap would include all detainees from both sides.

"The first section is the political framework, the second section is the airport ... then Sanaa and the economic measures and humanitarian issues, and the fifth — and it has been discussed and finished — is concerning the detainees and prisoners of war," senior Ansarullah negotiator Abdul-Malik al-Ajri said.

The talks opened Thursday on an upbeat note, with the warring sides agreeing to a broad prisoner swap, boosting hopes that the talks would not deteriorate into further violence as in the past.

In a release from Sanaa later Friday the Ansarullah said their delegation had met with Griffiths and looked forward to having success in the talks and making concrete progress.

"The international envoy discusses the importance of such consultations and affirmed that progress must be made on three important issues: the general framework, political solution and calm, and confidence-building measures," they said.

The Western-backed Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

UNHCR says of the 1,478 civilian casualties, 33 percent were women and children. That's a total of 217 women and children martyred and 268 wounded.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team