Thousands of Yemeni civilians trapped as Saudi jets pound Hudaydah

Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been trapped on the southern outskirts of Hudaydah as the key port city has become the flashpoint of a war by Riyadh and its allies against the Arab world's poorest nation, international aid groups say.

The Saudi-led alliance and militia groups loyal to Yemen’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, have been pushing over the past several months to capture the Red Sea city of Hudaydah, which is seen as the main entry point for food imports and aid relief needed by millions in the war-torn country.

“All the people living between the airport and the university are trapped, the last four days have been very tough, it is beyond catastrophic levels,” Isaac Ooko, Hudaydah’s area manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), told Reuters on Monday.

“Air strikes have been very intense and the hovering of the jets causes permanent anxiety... Hudaydah has become a ghost city, people stay indoors and the streets are deserted,” he added.

Meanwhile, Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children's agency, who recently visited Hudaydah, has expressed concern that clashes were getting close to al-Thawra hospital, the main medical facility on Yemen’s western coast which treats thousands of people, including for cholera and diphtheria.

“You could hear the fighting from the hospital and from our guest house close to it,” Touma said.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

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The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

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