Saudi airstrikes leave 600,000 civilians dead, injured: Yemeni ministry

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights says the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against the impoverished and conflict-plagued Arab country has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, including more than a quarter of a million children.

The ministry, in a statement released on Sunday, announced that aerial assaults being conducted by the Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 have claimed the lives of more than 38,500 people.

A total of 2,949 children and women in addition to 8,979 men have either sustained injuries or been maimed as a direct result of the airstrikes as well.

The statement further noted that the Saudi military aggression has also indirectly caused the death of 296,834 people.

More than 247,000 children have lost their lives due to severe malnutrition, and 17,608 civilians have died because of inability to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

The ministry went on to say that 1,200 people died of kidney failure, another 2,236 of cholera. A total 450 pregnant women also suffered miscarriages.

The statement said criminal acts by Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen’s resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, have also left 2,361 civilians killed and injured.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights explained that the Saudi-led war has also destroyed 271 factories, killed dozens of fishermen, and targeted 93 fish landing centers, destroyed 4,586 fishing boats, and deprived more than 50 thousand fishermen from fishing in the Red Sea in addition to the Arabian Sea.

Saudi-led air raids have destroyed nine civilian airports, 14 ports, 5,000 kilometers of roads, 95 bridges, 400 public and private telecommunications facilities, 420 power stations and transmission towers, 450 oil and gas installations and tankers plus 85 sports stadiums.

Moreover, 19 radio and television stations were destroyed, and 28 broadcasting masts were brought down.

The statement highlighted that the Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen has left 2,641 educational centers in ruins, leaving 2.5 million students unable to attend schools and universities.

In the agricultural sector, Saudi-led airstrikes have destroyed 660 food storages and 200 food factories.

The attacks have also targeted 1,016 farms, 535 central grocery markets, 40 rural grocery markets and 81 sub-markets.

The Yemeni ministry concluded that the Saudi-led aggression has destroyed 600 mosques and tourist facilities, and damaged 393 archaeological sites.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

“After three years of conflict, conditions in Yemen are catastrophic,” John Ging, the UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

He added, “People’s lives have continued unraveling. Conflict has escalated since November driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes.”

Ging said cholera had infected 1.1 million people in Yemen since last April, and a new outbreak of diphtheria has occurred in the war-ravaged Arab country since 1982.