The civilians have been taken to hospital and are out of danger, the offensive also caused damage to several vehicles in the area

Five people injured in Saudi Arabia after Hutu attack from Yemen

photo_camera AP/HANI MOHAMMED - A Hutu rebel fighter holds his gun during a meeting aimed at mobilising more fighters for the movement supported by Iran, in Sanaa

The war in Yemen is beginning to break out of its borders. At least five people were injured by shrapnel from a shell this weekend on the line between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in an attack attributed to Shiite Hutu rebels.

The spokesman for the Yazan Civil Defence Directorate, Mohammed bin Yahya al-Ghamdi, told the official SPA news agency that the impact of a "military projectile launched by the Hutids" from Yemeni territory towards some villages in Yazan province caused "slight injuries to five civilians", in addition to damage to three private vehicles.

The source indicated that the civilians were taken to a provincial hospital and that their state of health is stable. So far, the Hutu rebels have not claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Saudi government has attributed the impact to it.

The Hutids are an armed rebel group from Yemen made up mainly of Shiite Zaidi, but there are also Sunni militants, and they call themselves 'Ansarola' (Supporters of God). This group has intensified its attacks on civilian and military installations in Saudi Arabia over the past month. Some of these attacks have been intercepted by the Saudi Arabian army and have been prevented, but other offensives like this one have caused damage to the civilian population. 

In recent weeks the Yemeni insurgents claimed to have attacked Abha airport in southwest Saudi Arabia on as many as four occasions. But the Saudi-led Arab coalition (formed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Senegal) claimed to have intercepted and destroyed the drones.

The rebels justified these attacks by the "military escalation" of the Arab coalition, which supports forces loyal to the internationally recognised Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, expelled from Sana'a by the Hutus in 2014 when they conquered large areas of northern and western Yemen.

The international alliance of pro-Hadi countries denounces the "systematic and deliberate" campaign of the Hutu insurgents against civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, a fortnight ago UN experts published a report accusing the Saudi coalition of indiscriminate bombing of Hutu civilians. And they even stressed that, among other actions, they could constitute war crimes.

The conflict in Yemen erupted in 2014 when the Hutids conquered large areas in the north and west of the country by expelling the president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, from Sana'a. The Saudi Arabian-led Arab coalition entered the conflict in 2015 to fight the Hutids. The war has dragged on to this day. 

Human Rights Watch warns of humanitarian emergency

Currently, 80% of the Yemeni population is dependent on international aid. The conflict in Yemen represents, according to the UN, the greatest humanitarian tragedy on the planet. But the media silence constantly accompanies the suffering of the population which, after living through the biggest famine of the 21st century, now has to face the coronavirus pandemic.

The new report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounces how the Hutu rebels, as well as other parties to the conflict in Yemen, are obstructing the humanitarian aid needed by the country. 

The Hutis, who want to control the Yemeni capital Sana'a and many other cities in the north of the country, "have a particularly egregious record of preventing aid agencies from reaching civilians in need," HRW says in its report: 'Deadly Consequences: Obstruction of Aid in Yemen during COVID-19'.

According to the human rights organisation, the rebels use their influence in the area to divert relief items to their own organisation and block aid containers at the ports. The Hutu authorities, according to Reuters, told HRW that the accusations of interference with aid were "unfounded".

The conflict is rooted in the failure of a political transition that was to bring stability to the country after the Arab Spring that forced its former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011.

dron yemen atalayar
The peace that is almost upon us is moving away from Yemen

Although the war in Yemen as we know it today broke out in 2014, when the Hutu movement staged a coup d'état against the new government in the capital, a year later the intervention of the international Arab coalition under the name of "Operation Decisive Storm" ended up creating a war scenario never before seen in the south of the Gulf peninsula.

At the end of 2019, the Arab coalition and the Hutu rebels made several approaches to talk about a ceasefire to begin a peace process. Saudi Arabia's idea was to "seek a political solution in Yemen", as declared by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the annual address of the Shura council.

The United States, Iraq and Pakistan were very much in favour of opening a process of dialogue. For a few months the attacks were reduced and, for the first time in years, there were periods of 48 hours without any bombing in the country. Both sides seemed to collaborate, both released dozens of prisoners and Saudi Arabia allowed the reopening of Sana'a airport for commercial and humanitarian flights.

But in March 2020 all hope of peace was quickly dashed. The offensive was resumed by the Hutu rebels, who launched several missiles via drones at Saudi Arabia's oil refineries. 

The current scenario does not appear to be putting peace talks back on the table for a while. Meanwhile, the Yemeni population continues to suffer an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with a crisis of famine, lack of water, increased violence and the new threat of the coronavirus.
 

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