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At least 15 civilians were killed and 20 others injured in attacks on minibuses in Yemen’s western strategic Hudaydah province, according to the United Nations on Sunday.
“This is a horrific incident,” Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement.
“The United Nations agencies working in Yemen unequivocally condemn the attack on civilians and extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” she added.
The attacks reportedly struck the minibuses as they were traveling in Jabal Ras district in Hudaydah on Saturday.
Thirty-one percent of girls in war-battered Yemen lack access to basic education, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).“Due to conflict, girls are at a higher risk of losing access to primary or secondary education,” OCHA tweeted on Thursday, which coincided with the UN’s International Day of the Girl Child.“Every single girl has the right to have every skill available to succeed,” OCHA said.Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by war and turmoil since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.Video: Starving Yemeni children struggle to battle cholera as conflicts continue
One third of Yemen's girls lack access to education: UN
“Under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict are obliged to respect the principles of precaution, proportionality and distinction,” Grande said.
“Belligerents must do everything possible to protect civilians—not hurt, maim, injure or kill them,” she stressed.
According to UN estimates, more than 170 people have been killed and 1,700 others injured, while more than 425,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Hudaydah since June.
Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.
The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s basic infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.
Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen killed 10 civilians in Hodeidah province on Saturday, medics and Houthi media said.Medical sources told Reuters the civilians died when the air strikes hit a Houthi checkpoint in the town of Jabal Rass while a bus was passing through.Eight members of the same family were among the victims, they said.The Houthi movement’s Al Massira TV said 17 died and many others were in a critical condition.A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition could not immediately be reached for comment.The coalition intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to restore the internationally-recognised government to power. It has conducted thousands of air strikes targeting the Iran-aligned Houthis, and has often hit civilians, but denies doing so intentionally.The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than two million and driven the country - which was already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula - to the verge of widespread famine.
Air strikes kill 10 civilians in Yemen's Hodeidah province