Geneva – Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties (GCRL) condemns, in the strongest terms, the killing of 10 civilians in a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen’s northern province of Hajjah.
The Geneva Council calls on the Arab coalition to open an immediate investigation into the deadly attack reportedly hit a residential building and killed 6 women and 4 children on Sunday 12 July, which may amount to a war crime. It also stressed that under the laws of war, all parties to Yemen’s armed conflict must do everything necessary to verify that the targets are valid military objects.
Since the Yemen conflict escalated in March 2015, numerous coalition airstrikes have been carried out in violation of the laws of war without adequate follow-up investigations and Hajjah province raid is yet another clear indication of disregard for civilians’ lives.
Five years of the ongoing relentless conflict in Yemen has created one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises with more than 80 percent of the population is dependent on food and humanitarian aid to survive.
GCRL affirms that the killing of the four children in the attack shows once again the disappointing decision made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued on 15 June 2020, which pulled the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen from UN blacklist of groups killing children conflict zones.
Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties (GCRL) calls for urgent intervention to protect civilians in Yemen from the scourge of war that has been going on in the country for years, including raids of the Arab coalition continuously targeting civilian infrastructures.
Countries should block all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), support the independent investigation of the United Nations into violations committed by all parties to the armed conflict in Yemen, and ensure that all those responsible must be brought to justice and held accountable.
