As the war in Yemen enters its fifth year, an airstrike near a hospital by the Saudi Arabia-led international coalition force killed four children. According to aid group Save the Children, bombs struck a petrol station near the entrance to Kitaf rural hospital, about 100 kms from the city of Saada. Three adults, including a hospital worker, were also killed in the attack.
The incident comes soon after a report by Save the Children this week, which stated that, on an average, 37 Yemeni children had been killed or injured every month by foreign bombs in 2018.
Yesterday, on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of war in Yemen, tens of thousands of protesters assembled at the Sabeen square in the center of the capital city of Sanaa. Men, women and children – many with their faces painted in the colours of the Yemeni flags they were waving – expressed solidarity with the resistance put up by the Houthis to the Saudi-led and United States-backed military aggression on the country.
“This is a message to the world, that at the start of the fifth year [of the war], Yemenis will be stronger.. a message that the Yemeni resistance will be even greater,” one protester was reported to have said. “This year will be the year of victory,” said another confident protester.
Should victory not be around the corner, then “five or fifty years, we will face the criminal coalition,” boomed massive speakers as the Houthi leaders on the stage were cheered on by the massive crowd in which many danced with rifles and traditional daggers.
Over the last four years, the war has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, as airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition bombed civilian targets, ranging from school buses to wedding ceremonies.
The allies of Saudi Arabia – including the US, United Kingdom and Israel – have provided this coalition not only with funds and weapons but also with crucial technical assistance required to carry out precision airstrikes.
Among those who have survived these attacks, 80% of the population are in dire need of assistance, with millions on the brink of starvation.
The mass-demonstration yesterday, in which the angry protesters raised slogans against US, Israel and other allies supporting the war, is a testimony to the endurance of a people. Suffering in the midst of what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis, the people vowed to continue resisting foreign aggression.
