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HRW Alarmed over Saudi-led Aggression on Hodeida

HRW Alarmed over Saudi-led Aggression on Hodeida
folder_openYemen access_time5 years ago
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Human Rights Watch [HRW] urged Friday the minimization of civilian harm during military attacks against the western port city of Hodeida. The Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, and Yemeni regime-aligned forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates, stepped up attacks on Ansarullah forces controlling the port in June 2018.

HRW Alarmed over Saudi-led Aggression on Hodeida

About 70 percent of Yemen's aid and commercial imports enter through Hodeida and the nearby Saleef port, providing food, fuel, and medicine that the population needs for survival. To comply with international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, warring parties should take immediate steps to provide safe passage and adequate support to civilians fleeing fighting and facilitate the flow of aid and commercial supplies to the broader population and access by humanitarian agencies.

"The coalition ... forces now fighting for Hodeida have atrocious records abiding by the laws of war," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The UN Security Council should urgently warn senior officials on both sides to provide civilians access to desperately needed aid."

Up to 600,000 civilians remain in the vicinity of densely populated Hodeida. On June 9, the UAE, which has led coalition operations along Yemen's western coast, informed humanitarian organizations that they had three days to evacuate the city. The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations withdrew many of their staff, but the UN aid chief, Mark Lowcock said, "It is our plan, intention and hope to stay and deliver."

The parties to the conflict are bound under the laws of war to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures. Since the coalition began its military campaign in Yemen in March 2015, coalition forces have committed numerous unlawful airstrikes and used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions.

The UN has referred to Yemen as the world's worst and largest humanitarian crisis. As of January 2018, at least eight million Yemenis were on the brink of famine, which is linked directly to the armed conflict. Hodeida's port is the "single most important point of entry for the food and basic supplies needed to prevent famine and a recurrence of a cholera epidemic," the UN has said.

UN Security Council Resolutions 2140 and 2215 established a sanctions regime that authorizes the Yemen Sanctions Committee to designate those responsible for serious abuses, including obstructing humanitarian assistance, for travel bans and asset freezes. The Security Council should announce that it will impose these penalties on individuals who commit offenses during the Hodeida offensive that meet the sanctions committee's designation criteria, Human Rights Watch said.

The US became a party to the Yemen conflict soon after fighting began by providing intelligence and refueling for coalition bombing missions. In 2017, the US sent Special Forces to assist in locating and destroying Houthi caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites, according to the New York Times. The US has also sold thousands of advanced bombs and rockets to Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition. The US could become complicit in violations of the laws of war by assisting coalition forces during the Hodeida offensive. The United Kingdom, France and other countries have also sold weapons to coalition forces. US and other foreign officials may be exposed to potential legal liability by selling weapons likely to be used in unlawful attacks.

"The battle for Hodeida could have a devastating impact on civilians both in the city and elsewhere in Yemen," Whitson said. "Both sides need to seek to minimize civilian harm at all times, whether in carrying out attacks or by allowing families to flee to safety."

Source: HRW, Edited by website team

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