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A new aerial bombardment against a prison held by Houthi rebels left at least 70 people dead and 138 wounded. In Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, thousands of citizens demonstrated to condemn the attacks, attributed to the Saudi-led coalition.
At least 70 people died and nearly 100 were injured this Friday, January 21, in an air attack carried out against a prison controlled by the Houthi rebels in Yemen and located in the city of Saada, in the northwest of the country.
The attack, which shows a strong escalation of violence, is attributed to the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which since 2015 has carried out operations against the areas controlled by the Houthi rebels in the Arab country.
According to a witness interviewed by the Reuters news agency, an airstrike hit the prison, killing several people, including African migrants arriving in Yemen to try to illegally reach Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi-controlled Yemeni TV channel Al-Masirah showed footage of people trying to clear the rubble to extricate those trapped under the rubble.
Through this television medium, the office of the Shiite movement denounced a “horrible massacre against prisoners in the province of Saada”, described what happened as a “war crime and against humanity” and blamed the members of the Arab coalition for the deaths. of this Friday.
Images from last night Saudi/UAE airstrikes on Sana’a. Hard to understand denial over civilian causalities in Yemen. Even harder to understand why there’s been zero accountability as civilian deaths mount. #Yemen #uae pic.twitter.com/En0ZapOg3W
— Afrah Nasser (@Afrahnasser) January 18, 2022
The Saudi-led coalition has stepped up its airstrikes against the Houthis after the Iranian-backed Shiite movement carried out an attack on the International Airport and an industrial zone in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Monday. , which left three dead and six wounded. This Arab country is also a member of the coalition and intervenes militarily against the Houthi insurgency.
The coalition has not acknowledged responsibility for the attacks
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday condemned the airstrikes in Yemen and said “this escalation must stop.”
In addition, on its Twitter account, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) organization said that the Republican hospital in Saada cannot treat more patients because it is “overwhelmed” and lacks supplies.
“What I have heard from my colleagues in Saada is that there are many bodies still at the site of the bombing and many missing. It is impossible to know how many people have been killed,” said Ahmed Mahat, MSF head of mission in Yemen.
For its part, the NGO Save the Children reported that at least three minors died during attacks in the city of Hodeida, in southwestern Yemen, which was also the target of aerial bombardment on Thursday night.
News update from #Yemen:
Last night Sa’ada City Remand Prison was hit by what was reported to be an air strike from the Saudi-led Coalition.
Al-Gumhourriyeh Hospital in the city has received 138 wounded and 70 dead. They are so overwhelmed that they can’t take any more patients.— MSF International (@MSF) January 21, 2022
The attack in Hodeida also hit a telecommunications center, leaving the entire country without Internet access.
Shortly after the bombings in both cities, thousands of people in Sana’a took to the streets to condemn the coalition attacks. With Yemeni flags and banners, they rejected the violence that is intensifying again and that marks a great escalation in the civil war in Yemen.
For its part, the Arab coalition acknowledged having carried out “precise air strikes to destroy the militia’s capabilities” around the port of Hodeida, but has not yet confirmed whether it is behind the Saada massacre.
The war in Yemen between the government and the Houthi rebels intensified in 2015 with the intervention of the coalition, accused of bombing civilian targets and causing innocent victims, including minors and women.
With EFE, AP and Reuters
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