UN Senior Official Urges Probe into Saudi War on Yemen
Local Editor
The United Nations' [UN] human rights chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein called for urgent investigation into Saudi Arabia's airstrikes against civilians in Yemen.
The UN official made the remarks during a Monday speech to the organization's Human Rights Council in Geneva after the global body attributed over 5,000 civilian deaths to Saudi Arabian airstrikes.
"The minimal efforts made toward accountability over the past year are insufficient to respond to the gravity of the continuing and daily violations involved in this conflict," he said.
The latest call for an investigation was the third of such made by the UN's rights chief.
Last week, his office stressed that 47 countries on the Human Rights Council were not taking their responsibilities seriously, and called on them to probe the "entirely man-made catastrophe."
On Friday, Human Rights Watch [HRW] lashed out at the Saudi-led coalition for its refusal to provide information on its role in the massive unlawful airstrikes against Yemen in an attempt to avoid international legal liability.
Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan are part of the Saudi coalition. Qatar withdrew from the coalition in June amid a diplomatic rift with Riyadh, Manama, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.
More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign more than two and a half years ago. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.
The Saudi war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.
According to data provided by the World Health Organization and Yemen's Health Ministry, the country's cholera outbreak, the worst on record in terms of its rapid spread, has infected 612,703 people and killed 2,048 since it began in April, with some districts still reporting sharp rises in new cases.
The United Nations said the Saudi war has left some 17 million Yemenis hungry, nearly seven million facing famine, and about 16 million almost without access to water or sanitation.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
Comments
- Related News
