Terrorist Attacks Target Mosques in Yemen
The United Nations Security Council condemned Thursday the “horrific” series of terrorist attacks on mosques which left dozens dead and wounded in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a.
The attacks – perpetrated Wednesday – targeted three mosques in Yemen’s capital city in the latest bout of violence to convulse the war-torn country.
During the period spanning 11 to 15 June, a total of 50 civilians, including 18 children and 11 women, were killed in the ongoing fighting in Yemen, bringing the total number of civilian deaths to 1,412, with another 3,423 confirmed as injured, according to UN data.
The Organization recently reported that the total casualty figures from the country’s conflict have surpassed 2,600.
Concluding their press statement, meanwhile, Security Council members also reminded States that “they must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law.”
Yemen’s hostilities – which began in mid-March – have only deepened the country’s existent humanitarian crisis, plunging civilians even further into despair.
Already the poorest nation in the Gulf region prior to the fighting, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) recently stressed that more than 15 million Yemenis do not have access to basic healthcare, with 53 health facilities closed and malnutrition increasing. Eighty per cent of the country’s population is currently in need of critical humanitarian aid.
At the same time, the country’s extensive archaeological and historic heritage has been increasingly under threat following a surge in aerial bombing raids in the Old City of Sana’a.
