51killed as Saudi warplanes target three Yemeni provinces

More than 50 people have been killed and over 80 others wounded as Saudi fighter jets step up airstrikes against the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and other cities.

Early on Wednesday, Saudi jets targeted the headquarters of Yemen’s military police in the Shu’aub district of Sana’a, killing 39 people and injuring 80 others, according to reports by Reuters and the Yemeni al-Masirah TV.

The al-Masirah report said the aircraft had carried out seven rounds of bombings against the facility. It identified some of the casualties as prisoners held as part of criminal investigations.

Separately, Saudi planes pounded Sahar District in the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada, injuring four civilians. One of the casualties later died of the injuries.

A Saudi strike also hit a vehicle in Maqbanah District of the southwestern Yemeni province of Ta’izz, leaving 11 people dead.

The kingdom and a group of its allies have been bombing Yemen since 2015 to put its former Riyadh-friendly government back in the saddle. More than 12,000 have died since the war began.

Now, more than eight million Yemenis are on the verge of starvation, making the country the scene of, what the UN calls, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called last Sunday for an end to the “stupid war,” which has also the firm backing of the United States and Britain.

Saudi still choking up Yemen ports

Meanwhile, the head of the US government’s aid agency said on Tuesday that there were no signs that a Saudi blockade of the ports had eased to let in aid consignments.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you there has been an easing of the blockade,” said USAID administrator Mark Green.

He said he was “deeply concerned on so many fronts” about the crisis in Yemen, but in particular the failure to get fuel into the country so people have access to clean water.

“That means a number of communities are either without clean water or will be very shortly, and in both cases that is a terrible concern from the cholera perspective and the survival perspective,” he added.

A rampant cholera outbreak, exacerbated by the devastation of the country’s health infrastructure, has killed more than 2,000 in Yemen.