Saudi
Airstrike Hits Yemen School, Killing Children, as Humanitarian Crisis Worsens
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
At least five people, including two children, were killed when
the Saudi-led coalition bombed a primary school
The aftermath of Tuesday's bombing. (Photo: ARWA RIGHTS/Twitter)
A primary school in Yemen was bombed by the Saudi-led coalition
on Tuesday, and five people, including two children, were killed, medics told the Middle
East Eye.
A rebel group puts the death toll at eight, with 15
wounded, according to AFP.
A military official told AFP that the strike
was a "mistake."
A video posted to
social media Tuesday purports to show the bloody aftermath of the bombing.
(Warning: video is graphic.)
The U.S.-backed coalition has long been condemned by
human rights advocates for killing civilians throughout its nearly
two-years-long campaign against rebel Houthi groups. In the past six months
alone, the coalition has bombed a funeral,
a hospital,
and another school.
The enduring war, which the U.S. still supports by
re-fueling coalition planes, has created an ongoing humanitarian crisis—with
Oxfam warning in
December that the country only has enough food to feed its population for the
next several months.
"Yemen is being slowly starved to death," said Mark
Goldring, Oxfam Great Britain Chief Executive.
"First there were restrictions on imports—including
much-needed food—when this was partially eased the cranes in the ports were
bombed, then the warehouses, then the roads and the bridges. This is not by
accident—it is systematic," Goldring explained.
The effect has been mass starvation, and Al
Jazeera reported Sunday
that many families and children are only surviving by scavenging scraps of food
from landfills and garbage bins.
"It is my daily attempt to stave off the death of my family
by hunger," one father of ten living in Sanaa told Al
Jazeera. "I have become a frequent visitor of the rubbish
dump."
The Famine Emergency Warning System characterizes Yemen
as "the largest food security emergency in the world."
“The country's economy, its institutions, its ability to feed
and care for its people are all on the brink of collapse," Goldring said,
urging Western leaders to cut off arms sales to the coalition and push for an
end to the war.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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