Human RightsSaudi ArabiaWest AsiaYemen

Thousands of Yemenis Develop Cancer Due to Saudi Coalition’s Use of Banned Weapons

Yemeni Minister of Public Health and Population Taha al-Mutawakel revealed that thousands of people in the country start developing cancer each year due to the prohibited weapons used by the Saudi coalition during the war.

“The medical centers in Yemen have witnessed 100% increase in the number of cancer patients since the start of the Saudi coalition’s aggression,” al-Mutawakel was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Masirah news channel on Tuesday.

He criticized the WHO for weak performance in supplying Yemen with necessary medicine to treat cancer patients, and said medical centers receive 7,000 cancer patients in different provinces annually.

Al-Mutawakel said that the number of patients with cancer and other dangerous diseases in regions which have been bombed by the Saudi coalition’s fighter jets is more than other areas.

Earlier reports said that the Saudi-led coalition warplanes used phosphorus bombs and banned weapons during their air strikes in the capital city of Sana’a.

Saudi regime and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives for over the past five years; although the facts on the ground and eye witness accounts put the number of the dead far more than this figure.

Ansarullah movement, backed by armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of the devastating war.

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