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News > World

UN Blacklists Saudi Coalition over Killing Children in Yemen

  • Yemeni children hold automatic rifles as they join grown up relatives in a tribal gathering.

    Yemeni children hold automatic rifles as they join grown up relatives in a tribal gathering. | Photo: AFP

Published 3 June 2016
Opinion

The U.N. said the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was responsible for more than 60 percent of child deaths in Yemen since March 2015.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed Thursday the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen for killing and maiming children by adding it to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children's rights during conflict.

ANALYSIS:
1 Year Later: West-Backed Saudi Coalition Has Destroyed Yemen

The coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, according to Ban's report, which also said the coalition carried out half the attacks on schools and hospitals.

"Grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict," Ban said in the report. "In Yemen, owing to the very large number of violations attributed to the two parties, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition are listed for killing and maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals."

Saudi Arabia began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year, with 10 of its regional allies, in a bid to reinstate their Yemeni ally, exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, after the Ansarullah rebels took control of the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country in September 2014, ousting the Saudi-backed government and forcing Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

The U.N. report blacklists groups that "engage in the recruitment and use of children, sexual violence against children, the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and/or hospitals and attacks or threats of attacks against protected personnel, and the abduction of children."

ANALYSIS:
Why Saudi Arabia is Bombing Yemen

According to recent estimates more than 9,400 people have been killed, half of them are civilians, while at least 16,000 have been injured since the the beginning of the Saudi-led operation in Yemen.

The report also cited a deadly U.S. air strike on a hospital run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Kunduz, Afghanistan. However, the report fell short from blacklisting the U.S. over the strike saying it was carried out by "international forces".

Ban urged the 193 U.N. member states to ensure engagement in hostilities and responses to threats to peace and security comply with international law. "It is unacceptable that the failure to do so has resulted in numerous violations of children's rights," he said.

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