UN envoy to Yemen: Saudi coalition targeting of Saada prison worst in years
The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, says that the Saudi coalition's targeting of the detention facility in Saada is one of the worst attacks on Yemen.
The UN envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council that the Saudi coalition's airstrikes on a detention center in Saada killed and wounded more than 300 people.
Grundberg called the air raid "the worst civilian casualty incident in three years," highlighting an "alarming" increase in raids by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen, including residential areas and the Hodeidah port area.
The envoy announced that next week, he would start a consultation plan with all Yemeni parties to develop a framework for a comprehensive political settlement in the country.
Grundberg told the Security Council that the consultations are an opportunity for the Yemeni parties to move forward towards a peaceful path.
Doctors without borders described the coalition airstrike on Yemen as "the latest in a long line of unjustifiable airstrikes carried out by the #Saudi-led coalition on places like schools, hospitals, markets, wedding parties, and prisons."
The Saudi-led coalition denied the raid and accused international organizations of unfounded allegations.
For her part, the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen Katharina Ritz expressed her shock when she visited the crime scene of the central prison in Saada, conveying the Red Cross' condolences to the families of the victims.
Ritz explained that the ICRC visited the targeted prison in Saada 4 times, with the regional representative in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Saudi-led coalition continues to launch raids and bombardments on a number of Yemeni governorates, leaving martyrs, wounded, and material damage to property and infrastructure. This escalation coincides with the coalition launching, a few days ago, a military air operation on Al-Hudaydah, western Yemen, continuing to violate the ceasefire there.
Saudi coalition warplanes cut water off more than 150,000 Yemenis
Last month, the Yemeni Ministry of Water and Environment in Sanaa condemned the attack of the Saudi-led coalition warplanes that targeted the Tlummus field tanks in the city of Saada, which supplies the Governorate with potable water.
In a statement, the Ministry of Water considered that "the systematic targeting of water projects by the coalition of aggression in the city of Saada, northern Yemen, with three raids is a full-fledged crime that contradicts international and humanitarian norms, charters, and laws."