JAN. 5, 2016
Civilian Deaths in Yemen Spike Despite Cease-Fire, U.N. Says
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
GENEVA -- The number of civilian casualties in Yemen rose sharply in December despite a cease-fire called by the warring parties at the start of face-to-face negotiations, according to details released on Tuesday by the United Nations, which attributed most of the deaths to airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
The assessment came two days after coalition forces said that daily attacks by rebel Houthi forces, including rocket assaults targeting Saudi cities and border posts, had prompted them to end the truce declared when the two sides met in Switzerland last month.
At least 81 civilians were killed in the fighting in December, more than double the figure for the previous month, said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, and an additional 109 were reported wounded. At least 62 civilians died in coalition airstrikes, and 11 people were reportedly killed in shelling by Houthi-affiliated forces, he added.
The United Nations said that the conflict had been responsible for 8,119 casualties in 2015, including 2,795 dead and 5,324 wounded.
The talks in Switzerland ended after five days with little evidence of tangible results, and the decision by the coalition to abandon the cease-fire does not augur well for efforts to bring the parties back to the negotiating table.
A United Nations official, Michele Zaccheo, said the negotiations, which were originally convened by the special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, were still expected to resume as scheduled on Jan. 14, although the site has yet to be decided.
The latest casualty estimates reinforce concerns about the coalition's conduct during the war. The United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, told the Security Council last month that the Saudi-led coalition had accounted for a "disproportionate amount" of the damage to infrastructure and civilian premises, including schools and hospitals.
Mr. Colville cited reports that 18 civilians died in two coalition airstrikes in northern Saada Province on Dec. 18 and that six people, including three children, died when aircraft hit the Shuhada residential area of Hodeida two days later.
Coalition forces have continued to conduct airstrikes in heavily populated areas of the capital, Sana, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, the United Nations reported, although it could not confirm whether these had resulted in additional casualties.
The United Nations said its teams had found "alarming" evidence of coalition attacks using cluster munitions during visits to the northern province of Hajja; Human Rights Watch [1] has reported that the area was hit in similar attacks in a series of coalition airstrikes from April to July.
The heaviest fighting and the highest number of casualties in recent weeks occurred around the city and province of Taiz, where the United Nations said that tight control of entry points by Houthi-affiliated forces had made it difficult for food and other essential supplies to get into the city or for civilians to get out.
The United Nations also expressed concern about the effect of the conflict on Yemen's prison system. More than 40 prisoners have died in airstrikes over the past nine months, it said, and more than 4,300 prisoners are believed to have escaped.
Officials in the southern port city of Aden said Tuesday that the provincial governor, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, and other senior officials had survived an attack on a government convoy by a suicide bomber.
Saeed Al-Batati contributed reporting from Al Mukalla, Yemen.
[1] https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/26/yemen-cluster-munition-rockets-kill-injure-dozens