State of Emergency Declared in Sanaa, Yemen Over Cholera Outbreak

Plagued by Saudi airstrikes and now cholera outbreak

Cholera outbreak has killed about 115 people in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in recent days, with about 8,600 suspected cases of the diastase reported, prompting officials  to declare a state of emergency.

[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists.]

• Yemen Report Nos. 1 – 9 are available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

Background:

• More than 7.6 million people live in areas at high risk of cholera transmission, according to WHO.
• At least 17 million of Yemen’s 26 million population lack sufficient food and more than three million malnourished children are in “grave peril,” the U.N. has said.
• Two-thirds of the population have no access to safe drinking water.
• About 10,000 people have lost their lives, and 40,000 wounded mostly in almost daily airstrikes, conducted by Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi-led Forces Indiscriminately Airdrop Cluster Bombs on Yemen’s Capital, Sanaa

Deliberate or reckless use of cluster bombs in populated areas is a war crime: HRW

Saudi-led coalition forces airdropped cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, early on January 6, 2016, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“It is not yet clear whether the attacks caused civilian casualties, but the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions makes such attacks serious violations of the laws of war. The deliberate or reckless use of cluster munitions in populated areas amounts to a war crime.”

“The coalition’s repeated use of cluster bombs in the middle of a crowded city suggests an intent to harm civilians, which is a war crime,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. “These outrageous attacks show that the coalition seems less concerned than ever about sparing civilians from war’s horrors.”

Description of the aerial attacks provided by the residents of two Sanaa neighborhoods are consistent with cluster munition use, said HRW.

HRW has identified several types of the munitions including US-made BLU-63 antipersonnel/anti-materiel submunitions and components of a CBU-58 cluster bomb, manufactured in 1978 at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in the state of Tennessee, CBU-58 cluster bombs, which contains 650 submunitions  (U.S. transferred 1,000 CBU-58 bombs to Saudi Arabia sometime between 1970 and 1995).

The CBU-58 cluster bomb and BLU-63 submunition were developed by the US during the Vietnam War and are designed to attack personnel and lightly protected materiel. The submunitions also contain 5-gram titanium pellets that produce an incendiary effect on flammable targets.

Five different types of cluster munitions have been used in Yemen, four of them by the Saudis, and one by as yet an unknown source, according to HRW and Amnesty International.

The US is a party to the armed conflict in Yemen, playing a direct role in coordinating military operations, and as such, is obligated to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war in which its forces took part.

A US Defense Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity,  told U.S. News and World Report in August that “the U.S. is aware that Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in Yemen.”

The US Defense Department announced in November that “the State Department had approved a sale of US$1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions, such as laser-guided bombs and ‘general purpose’ bombs with guidance systems – none of which are cluster munitions. The US should not sell aerial bombs to Saudi Arabia in the absence of serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen,” HRW said.

HRW has called on the UN Human Rights Council to create an independent, international inquiry into alleged war crimes in Yemen by “all sides.”

“It may have been 20 years since the US last provided cluster munitions to the Saudis, but they are being used to kill civilians now,” Goose said. “The US, as a party to the conflict, should be demanding that the coalition immediately stop using these weapons or risk becoming complicit in their use.”

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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.