(Riyadh) The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on Saturday denied responsibility for a strike on a prison held by Houthi rebels that left at least 70 dead and around 100 injured, an attack condemned by the UN.
Updated yesterday at 11:22
Since 2015, Riyadh has led a military coalition that supports pro-government Yemeni forces against the Houthis close to Iran. The rebels, who control much of the north of the country, blamed the coalition for the bombardment.
The strike carried out on Friday against a prison in Saada, a Houthi stronghold in the north, killed at least 70 people and injured 138, according to the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
This assessment concerns only one hospital in Saada, “two other establishments having received many wounded”. “Searching continues in the rubble,” added MSF.
” Disinformation ”
PHOTO ANSAR ALLAH MEDIA OFFICE VIA AP
A man with a bloody face receives help to get out of prison.
Eight NGOs, including Action contre la Faim, Oxfam and Save the Children, said in a joint statement that the dead would include migrants, denouncing a “flagrant indifference” for the lives of civilians.
The coalition, of which the UAE is a part, denied targeting the Sa’ada detention center, accusing the Houthis of “disinformation”.
In a statement, quoted by the official Saudi news agency SPA, she said she had examined the rebel allegations, before concluding that they were “false”.
The insurgents, for their part, broadcast a video showing images presented as the consequences of the strike in Saada: destroyed buildings, rescuers clearing bodies and mutilated corpses.
The United States called for “de-escalation”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned “the strikes by the Saudi-led coalition” and called for “effective investigations”.
Iran also condemned the strikes and warned that the bombings would make the peace process “more difficult”.
In more than seven years of war, all parties to the conflict have been accused of “war crimes” by UN experts. Implicated for multiple “blunders”, the coalition has recognized “mistakes” and accuses the rebels of using civilians as human shields.
The UN has been trying in vain for several years to end this devastating conflict which, according to it, has killed 377,000 people and pushed a population of 30 million to the brink of large-scale famine.
On Thursday, the coalition confirmed on the other hand that it had targeted the port city of Hodeïda in the hands of the Houthis, through which passes most of the international aid intended for the country, confronted with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
At least three children were killed while “they were apparently playing on a football pitch”, according to the NGO Save the Children.
internet always cut off
The coalition said it struck Hodeidah as a “hub of piracy and organized crime”. After the raid, the internet was cut in the country and had still not been restored by Saturday evening.
The NetBlocks organization spoke of a “nationwide” shutdown. “There are no signs of his recovery,” she told AFP.
In Saudi Arabia, the air defense forces intercepted and destroyed on Friday evening a missile fired from Saada towards the region of Khamis Mushait (south), which is home to a large air base, according to the coalition.
Coalition raids have intensified in recent days in Yemen after the Houthis claimed claims of attacks that left three people dead in Abu Dhabi, capital of the Emirates. The Gulf country had warned that it would retaliate.
On January 3, the Houthis, who control large swaths of Yemeni territory, hijacked an Emirati-flagged ship in the Red Sea, further escalating tensions as the coalition gains ground in disputed provinces.
The coalition then warned that it would bomb the ports of Hodeida which it said had been militarized by the rebels and their Iranian partners.