SANAA - Dozens of civilians were reported dead Wednesday after a dairy plant was bombed in Yemen, as aid groups warned of a brewing humanitarian crisis from Saudi-led strikes on rebels.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin called for the coalition to send ground troops, saying that “at some stage air strikes will be ineffective”.
Rights groups have voiced growing alarm about civilian casualties from the nearly week-old air war aimed at preventing the fall of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. At least 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded overnight at the dairy in the port city of Hodeida, provincial governor Hasan al-Hai said, without specifying whether the factory was hit by an air strike or rebel shelling.
The head of the provincial health authorities, Abdulrahman Jarallah, gave a toll of 35 people killed and dozens wounded. Part of the factory was destroyed and rescue teams were looking for survivors under the rubble, according to a medic at a Hodeida hospital that received the casualties.
The circumstances of the bombing were unclear, with some witnesses saying the dairy was hit by a coalition air strike and others blaming rebel forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Saudi-led coalition bombarded rebel positions early Wednesday in Yemen’s main southern city Aden in a seventh night of raids that also targeted the capital and other areas.
The Aden strikes were focused on the rebel-held provincial administration complex in Dar Saad in the city’s north, according to a military official.
He said there were “many dead and wounded” among the Huthi rebels but was unable to give a precise toll. The coalition has vowed to keep targeting the Huthis and allied army units loyal to Saleh until they end their insurrection. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged the rebels to “back off” for the sake of their country. “The stability of Yemen and the safety of its people hangs from your necks,” Sisi said in a televised speech to military and police officers.
Iran is accused of backing the rebels but Tehran denies providing military support. Overnight strikes targeted rebel positions including camps of army units loyal to Saleh in the north of Aden, around Sanaa and in the central region of Ibb, residents said. Six civilians were killed in an air raid targeting Maydi in the northwest province of Hajjah, according to medical sources. After entering the capital in September, the Huthis and their allies gradually conquered areas in the centre, west and south of Yemen before bearing down on Aden last month, prompting Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, at least 62 children have been killed and 30 injured in Yemen over the past week as fighting has escalated with a Saudi-led air campaign, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday. “Children are in desperate need of protection, and all parties to the conflict should do all in their power to keep children safe,” said UNICEF’s representative for Yemen, Julien Harneis.Fighting has escalated sharply in Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes five days ago to block an advance by rebels know as Huthis.