PressTV & Tom Miles / Reuters – 2017-05-14 23:34:10
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/05/12/521650/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-US-Trump-Houthi-Ansarullah-Hudaydah-rally
Yemenis Stage Massive Rally against
US Support of Saudi War on Yemen
PressTV
TEHRAN (May 12, 2017) — Tens of thousands of people have held a massive rally in the Yemeni capital Sana’a to voice their outrage at the US-backed Saudi military campaign against the impoverished Arab country.
The demonstrators marched through Ma’rib Street in central Sana’a after Friday prayers, carrying Yemeni flags and banners in condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh later this month.
Participants in the rally also shouted slogans such as, “No to American terrorism,” renewing the Yemeni people’s steadfastness in the face of the Saudi aggression, which has been supported by the US.
The protesters condemned Washington for being complicit in the Saudi crimes against the Yemeni nation by providing the Al Saud regime with conventional and banned weapons.
In a speech to the demonstrators, Supreme Revolutionary Committee Chairman Muhammad Ali al-Houthi said the massive rally would be a prelude to a yet larger protest to be held concurrent with Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Protesters also condemned some Persian Gulf Arab states for publicly aiding the Saudi regime in its brutal campaign against Yemenis and destroying their country.
Since March 2015, Saudi warplanes have been heavily bombarding Yemen in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall the resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Latest tallies show that the imposed war has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.
Nearly 3.3 million Yemenis, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, while more than seven million people are grappling with starvation. The figures, however, could drastically increase if the Saudi war machine continues to breathe fire on Yemeni people.
UN Warns about Saudi Attack on Yemeni Port
Meanwhile, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that a possible Saudi attack on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled port city of Hudaydah could displace several hundred thousands of people.
“A minimum of 400,000 people will flee the city eastwards, once Hudaydah is under attack,” said IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker in a statement.
Located in the southern Yemeni province of Ta’izz, Hudaydah is part of a broad battlefront where Saudi forces are fighting the Yemeni army and its Houthi allies, who are in control of most of Yemen’s northern and western regions. Some 80 percent of the war-torn country’s food imports and relief aid also come through the port.
Despite repeated assaults and heavy bombardments, Saudi Arabia has failed to seize the strategic port. On March 19, Riyadh called for jurisdiction over Hudaydah to be transferred to the UN, a move which the world body rejected.
This photo shows malnourished girl Jamila Ali Abdu, 7, lying on a hospital bed in the Red Sea Yemeni port city of Hudaydah on May 2, 2017, a few days before she died of complications from malnutrition.
UN Rights Chief Warns against
Saudi-led Attack on Yemen Port
Tom Miles / Reuters
(May 1, 2017) — The United Nations is continuing to receive signals that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen could attack the key port of Hodeidah, causing humanitarian suffering and loss of life, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said on Monday.
A Saudi-led military coalition backing the internationally-recognised government in its war against the Houthi rebels has been preparing an assault on Hodeidah.
“The UN is concerned about the humanitarian repercussions of such an attack in terms of inflaming the humanitarian crisis even further, let alone our concerns about loss of civilian life were there to be a large-scale attack on port,” Zeid told a news conference in Geneva.
Last week Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr repeated allegations that the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels were smuggling weapons into Yemen through Hodeidah and said his government preferred UN supervision of the port rather than an attack.
UN warns Saudi attack on Yemen’s Hudaydah could displace thousands
PressTV
(May 10, 2017) — The UN has warned that a Saudi attack on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled port city of Hudaydah could displace half a million civilians.
“Between 100,000 and half a million people could be displaced as the conflict and humanitarian situation continue to worsen,” said Shabia Mantoo, the spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, on Wednesday.
Located in the southern Yemeni province of Tai’zz, Hudaydah is part of a broad battlefront where Saudi forces are fighting the Yemeni army and its Houthi allies, which are in control of most of Yemen’s northern and western regions. Some 80 percent of the war-torn country’s food imports and relief aid also come through the port.
“The humanitarian situation alone continues to worsen even without the conflict intensifying,” she added.
She went on to note that severe food insecurity in the region has already reached critical levels, a fact which itself will worsen the large-scale displacement.
The UN had warned before that further Saudi military action against the port would “need to take into account the need to avoid any further deterioration in the humanitarian situation.”
Despite repeated assaults and heavy bombardments, Saudi Arabia has failed to seize the strategic port. On March 19, Riyadh called for jurisdiction over Hudaydah to be transferred to the UN, a move which the world body rejected.
Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to bring back to power the resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh, and to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The Riyadh regime has, however, failed to reach its goals despite suffering great expense.
The military aggression has claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people, most of them civilians.
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