Scale of Human Catastrophe in Yemen ‘Almost Incomprehensible’

Saudi airstrikes kill 5,000, displace 1.5 million, force 100,000 to flee Yemen since March: UNHCR

Latest Saudi air strikes killed at least 40 civilians and injured more than 150 others in Sanaa Friday, reported Yemen News Agency.

At least 38 more civilians were killed by the airstrikes in the northern province of Saada, which left dozens of others wounded, officials were reported as saying.

Meanwhile, the health crisis in Yemen is rapidly deepening with more health facilities running out of basic supplies and more hospitals and blood-transfusion centers ceasing to function, says UNHCR. The ongoing bombardment has severely affected agricultural and fishery sectors.

World community’s “virtual silence”

UN officials have criticized the world community for the “virtual silence” on the human catastrophe  caused by the Yemeni conflict from , warning that unless violence on the ground is stopped via political compromise more people will suffer.

Two senior UN officials, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, have expressed strong concerns over “the ever increasing impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, and the virtual silence of the international community about the threat to populations.”

Casualty figures to September 14, 2015

• Killed: 4,855 (at least 132 more people have been killed since September 14)
• About 50 percent of the casualties are civilians
• Wounded: 24,971  (at least 202 more people have been wounded since September 14)
• No. of refugees who have fled Yemen: 100,000
• No. of IDPs: 1.4 million [1.5 million]
• Affected population: 21.1 million
• People targeted: 11.7 million
• Since the escalation of conflict in late March, an average of 30 people have been killed, 185 wounded and 9,000 others internally displaced or fled the country each day.