"Everything is destroyed": Remembering Saudi-UAE massacres in Yemen

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"Everything is destroyed. They destroyed our toys. They destroyed everything."

        

             11 years-old Yemeni orphan Abed el Rahman

On January 17, 2022, Abed, his brother Faysal, and their two siblings lost their father and became orphans after the Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike on Sanaa's Al-Libi residential neighborhood, killing and wounding at least 29 civilians.

The victims of the war crime included an entire family, and the continuous strikes prevented ambulance crews from reaching the site.

This was one of the latest atrocious Saudi-UAE massacres in Yemen.

Traumatized Abed and Faysal spoke with Al Mayadeen English about their grieve and loss, stressing that the airstrike has taken everything from them, their father, their toys, and their childhood.

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A timeline of the most notorious genocidal campaigns against Yemenis:

The list is so long and the exact number of massacres committed by the Saudi-led coalition may never be known, but estimates range as high as 699 massacres from the period between 2015 to 2021. Entire families are being wiped out, however, why is nothing being done to stop the bloodshed.

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The sad world where massacres in Yemen aren't front-page news:

The below list is only some of the many massacres and a long list of constant air raids launched by the Saudi-led coalition on civilian dwellings like hospitals, markets, schools, wedding parties, football playgrounds, funerals, and prisons.

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Noqom massacre

On May 12, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched a brutal series of airstrikes on the Noqom residential neighborhood in the Yemeni capital. The coalition used highly-explosive gas and phosphorus bombs, killing and wounding more than 400 Yemeni civilians.

Taizz massacre

On August 22, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition of aggression launched a series of airstrikes that leveled an entire residential neighborhood in Taizz, with its residents still inside their homes. The attack killed and wounded a large number of Yemeni civilians, many of which were women and children.

Al-Mukha wedding massacre

On September 28, 2015, the Saudi-led deliberately committed a massacre near the Al-Mukha port city in Taizz, killing more than 135 civilians, the majority of which were women and children, not to mention the dozens of injuries the attack resulted in.

Sanban wedding massacre

On October 8, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike on a wedding in Sanban Village, Anns governorate, killing 43 civilians, the majority of which were women and children, and wounding 70 others.

Sanaa funeral home massacre

On October 8, 2016, the Saudi-led coalition committed a massacre during a funeral in the capital Sanaa, killing and wounding more than 750 civilians who had been there offering their condolences.

Arhab Funeral massacre

On February 15, 2017, the Saudi-led coalition turned a funeral in Sanaa's Arhab district into a bloodbath after directly targeting the funeral service, killing and wounding dozens of civilians, including women and children.

Harib Al-Qarmish female convoy massacre

On December 17, 2017, the Saudi-led coalition deliberately bombed a female convoy in Harib Al-Qarmish, Marib. The women had been returnila ng home on foot from a wedding in the area, and the attack claimed 12 lives.

Hajjah wedding massacre

On April 22, 2018, the Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike on a wedding in Hajjah's Bani Qais district, killing and wounding 90 civilians, a large number of which were children.

Saada central prison massacre

On January 21, 2022, the Saudi-led coalition committed a massacre in the Saada central prison, killing at least 91 prisoners and wounding more than 236 others.

The central prison has more than 20,000 inmates of various nationalities, in addition to a center for Africans passing through Yemen to other countries.

Voices Speak on behalf of Yemeni victims

Speaking to Al Mayadeen English, prominent US and Yemeni figures reflect on the resentment left as a result of the ongoing unlawful and inhumane bloodshed in Yemen.

“The senseless slaughter in Yemen never ceases to stun me. The US complicity in this illegal, immoral and cruel war is staggering and tells volumes about US foreign policy: the continued allegiance to brutal overseas regimes, the subservience of US policy to weapons companies, and the short-sighted ignorance, cowardice, and moral bankruptcy of US policymakers, both Democrat and Republican,” Matthew Hoh, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a member of the Eisenhower Media Initiative, told Al Mayadeen English.

“The US could stop this horrible war in Yemen tomorrow but it chooses not to”.

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In the same context, Yemeni activist Ahmed Almuaiyad told Al Mayadeen English that “the unapologetic and insidious bias of the United Nations Security Council toward the atrocities being committed by the coalition forces is encouraging them to continue committing war crimes and genocide against the people of Yemen.”

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Yousef Al-Mawri, the award-winning Yemeni journalist and expert on strategic warfare in the Middle East expressed that the “violations of international humanitarian law are only applied when it is committed by any government, group, or entity that is not under the umbrella of the international western hegemonic architecture.”

The Yemeni journalist added that “as empirically proven, states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are protected under this umbrella draped with the blood of tens of thousands of innocents. Likewise, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are given a green light by the UN Security Council to commit war crimes with impunity because they are acting on behalf of Western interests in Yemen.”

“What’s happening in Yemen is one of the greatest crimes against humanity in our modern age, however, despite this, the US and the British government continue their support for these autocratic regimes who have no regard for human life.”

“How can the UN and allied states who cloak themselves with this fallacy of being human and pro-human rights maintain any credibility in the eyes of the world when crimes against humanity of this magnitude are happening under their sponsorship and their supervision?” he asked.

“People of the world are starting to see through this fallacy, and they are beginning to understand that international law and policy is not there to protect human life but rather to protect the interest of the Western Empire hell-bent on using leveraging violence and collective punishment of all forms to achieve their goals in Yemen and in the Muslim world”, Al-Mawri concluded.

To the right is my niece with her favorite friend in kindergarten. This little girl is the only survivor from yesterday's airstrikes.

I can't imagine her trauma, to wake up in her PJs under the debris of her home, loosing her parents and siblings by #UK & #US-made bombs.#Yemen pic.twitter.com/NNf6q46H5G

— Sukaina (@sukaina_yemen) January 18, 2022

“My opinion is simple: these are war crimes committed by Saudi Arabia & the UAE with the financial backing & tacit support of the US," Editor and Former Associate Director for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Jennifer Loewenstein told Al Mayadeen English.

"It is clear to me that the Saudi assault on Yemen is a war of political dominance in a land it has no business interfering in.

The US’ alliance with Saudi Arabia and the UAE allows this not only politically but also militarily through our arms sales to these two countries."

“We are supporting the worst kind of aggression through silence, strategic complicity, and the aggressive pursuit of profits,” she stressed.

Yemeni stories from under the rubbles must be told, and recalling these atrocious events is vital to unmask one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world and to speak up about the right of the Yemenis to resist the Saudi-led coalition aggression.