Civilians’ Lives At Risk amid Hudaydah Clashes - UN

By Staff, Agencies

The United Nations warned Thursday that thousands of Yemeni civilians were at risk in the western province of al-Hudaydah after an increase in military clashes this month.

Since 2014, Yemen has been engulfed in a war waged by a Saudi-led military coalition, to which the Ansarullah revolutionaries have been strongly responding.

The Saudi war on Yemen has triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis.

The latest clashes in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah -- the main gateway for food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the rest of the country -- are the most violent since a truce negotiated in the area by the United Nations came into force in 2018.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA] said in a statement that "concern is increasing" with "thousands of civilians at risk."

It added that preliminary reports showed that at least 700 people has been displaced by the recent fighting and that "there have already been civilian casualties."

At least eight civilians, mostly women and children, were killed last week, and many houses and farms damaged, the UN said.

"Indiscriminate attacks on residential areas are a breach of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately," said Auke Lootsma, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Yemen.

Relatively, two explosions rattled Hudaydah city on Wednesday night, residents told AFP.