Obama and the Middle East – Workers between war and hunger – CIVIC report: civilians in war – UK helped whitewashing Saudis – Victims of war at Taiz – Saudi air raid at school – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche/ UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp13 c Finanzen / Finances
cp13c Finanzen / Finances
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16a Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp16b Saudischer Luftangriff auf Schule / Saudi air raid at school
cp17a Kriegsereignisse: Bab al-Mandab / Theater of War: Bab al-Mandab
cp17b Kriegsereignisse: Sonstige / Theater of War: Other
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
PH = Pro-Houthi
PS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
Luftangriff auf Schule: cp16b / Air raid at school: cp16b
11.1.2017 – Consortium News (*** B P)
How Obama Spread the Mideast Fires
Barack Obama is one of the “coolest” American presidents, but his “team of rivals” approach to governing – trying to accommodate and co-opt his adversaries – proved disastrous, especially in the Mideast
With President Obama down to less than two weeks in office, everyone is busy assessing his legacy. So let’s begin with the Arab world. Not since the Vietnam War, we can safely say, has an administration left a region in ruins the way Obama has left the Middle East (although it’s true that George W. Bush contributed mightily to the mess).
But Obama has expanded the chaos outward from Bush’s legacy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now including Libya, Syria and Yemen with ripple effects from the refugee flows extending into Turkey and even into Europe. Terrorism is exploding, entire nations have been reduced to war zones, while religious sectarianism is raging out of control.
Of course, not all of it is Obama’s fault. After all, he didn’t start the Sunni-Shia conflict, which dates back to the mid-Seventh Century, nor is he responsible for Arab-Persian ethnic tensions in general, which go back even farther. But he breathed new life into such forces and enabled them to achieve a new kind of prominence, with consequences that are little short of breathtaking.
How did someone so charming and seemingly so progressive wreak such havoc? The answer is through a combination of weakness, complacency, and taking the easy way out. Obama is the sort of cool and laid-back individual who adapts effortlessly to whatever institution he finds himself in, whether it’s the Harvard Law Review, the Illinois state legislature, the U.S. Senate or the White House.
Rather than fighting what President Dwight Eisenhower dubbed the “military-industrial complex,” Obama’s idea was to disarm it by bringing some of its chief advocates into his inner circle and perhaps give his own standing a boost as well. But what it chiefly did was to provide the War Party with a new lease on life.
The upshot was more conflict rather than less. John Kerry, Clinton’s no-less-bellicose successor, made this clear in his much-ballyhooed Dec. 28 speech about the breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
This was the old goal of a “GCC + 2” security umbrella in which Israel and the Palestinians would forget their differences and join with Egypt, Jordan, and the six members of the GCC – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman – to form a united front against a non-Arab intruder, Iran.
The alliance thus had an ethnic dimension right from the start. But it also had a religious dimension since all eight Arab nations are Sunni or Sunni-controlled with the minor exception of Oman. So, GCC + 2 would only pave the way for a growing sectarian conflict between Wahhabism, the stringent form of Sunni orthodoxy that is the official state ideology in Saudi Arabia, the dominant member of the GCC, and Iranian Shi‘ism.
But since Shi‘ism is not confined to a single nation but is actually the majority religion throughout the Persian Gulf area, it was a formula for something even worse, an all-out regional struggle between the Sunni states led by Riyadh on one hand and, on the other, an Iranian-dominated “Shi‘ite crescent” stretching from Lebanon and Syria to Bahrain, Yemen, and the Saudis’ own Eastern Province, the center of both its oil industry and its 15 percent Shi‘ite minority.
It was a strategy guaranteed to excite the worst passions on both sides of the divide. It was a recipe not only for war but for religious war, which is the worst kind. Not surprisingly, violence exploded, and more than a million refugees were sent fleeing toward Europe
Yet, Obama – with his Javanese penchant for reconciling opposites – has shown a strange combination of vision and blindness throughout the debacle. He spoke up in favor of human rights. But at his first meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, he bowed deeply and apparently kissed his hand, a curious gesture for a young progressive encountering one of the world’s greatest despots but it was a sign of hypocrisies to come.
President Obama did nothing to stop this pouring of gasoline on this regional sectarian war. Rather than tamping down the sectarianism, the U.S. facilitated its spread.
Since March 2015, Shi‘ite Houthis in Yemen have been fending off an air assault by Saudis convinced that the Houthi fighters are part of some occult Iranian conspiracy aimed at taking over that country as well.
Members of the Saudi ruling elite “see the hand of Iran everywhere and take seriously the declarations in the Iranian press bragging about how Iran now controls four Arab capitals – Baghdad, Sanaa, Beirut, and Damascus,” a Riyadh-based diplomat told the French journalist Alain Gresh. “They are obsessed with Iran,” said another.
The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the Saudis, backed by the U.S., attack Shi‘ite forces before they can attack them, thereby generating yet another round of conflict and recrimination.
Obama adapted to such paranoia all too gracefully and easily. Instead of fighting it, he accepted it as a given and tried to work with it, which only made it worse. The consequence was to tip the entire region into the abyss. Rarely has coolness led to more uncool results – By Daniel Lazare
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/01/11/how-obama-spread-the-mideast-fires/
11.1.2017 – Equal Times (** A E H P)
Yemen’s workers are trapped between war and hunger
The government is trying to keep the national bank in operation, after moving it from the Houthi-controlled capital city of Sana’a to the coastal city of Aden, where the government is currently based – however, the country is grinding to a halt.
"All state institutions are disabled because of the late payment of salaries,” says an employee in the Ministry of Finance who spoke to Equal Times on condition of anonymity.
“There are protests and widespread anger in the majority of governmental entities. Even those employees who fear the Houthis and are not protesting are staying in their homes waiting for news about salaries.”
“It is unfortunate that government employees’ salaries are transformed into a subject of political conflict,” says Abdel Qawy Hussein, an employee in the Ministry of Water and Environment. “What did hundreds of thousands of employees do wrong to find themselves suddenly without income?”
A Yemeni official confirmed to Equal Times that over a million employees in state institutions have gone without pay for months. These employees support 6.9 million people, nearly half of them children.
“The liquidity crisis led to the suspension not only of the salaries of state employees, but also the expenses of the state budget in general, leading to significant risks to economic, social and humanitarian indicators,” says Sarah Abdullah, an employee at the Yemeni Ministry of Planning.
She adds that famine indicators are growing day after day, with the increasing risk of an all-out humanitarian disaster.
The head of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Yemen, Ali Belkhadr, has called on the United Nations and international financial organisations to pressure the warring parties to agree on a mechanism to pay the salaries.
Trade unions are demanding a greater role in both the peace process and social dialogue, staging strikes in Sana’a as well as Aden to protest against the salary stoppage.
A trade unionist with the General Electricity Corporation said that about 24,000 employees who support more than 100,000 dependents have been without salaries for more than five months, and that all their protests during this period were repressed by both the government and the Houthis.
But for now the economy is in a state of paralysis.
Mustafa Nasr, chairman of the Economic Media Centre in Yemen, describes the salary stoppage on his Facebook page as a “snowball that is growing to drown the future of the Yemeni economy” – by Baligh Al-Mekhlafi
https://www.equaltimes.org/yemen-s-workers-are-trapped?lang=en#.WHYdWVySn3E
My comment: This crisis is due to war, a crushing economy, blockade and the merely political motivated decision of “president” Hadi to relocate the Central Bank from Sanaa to Aden.
10.1.2017 – Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) (*** B H K)
New CIVIC Report: Stability in Yemen Rests on Civilian Protection
Millions of Yemen’s civilians are suffering from two years of airstrikes, snipers, landmines, forced displacement, famine, and economic devastation brought on by the fighting between the combined forces of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis, and the subsequent intervention by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to reinstate the Yemeni government, warns Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) in its report published today, “We Lived Days in Hell”: Civilian Perspectives of the Conflict in Yemen.
In one of the first comprehensively researched reports of its kind, which relied on interviews with 166 civilians as well as 55 leaders of armed groups and government, military and security officials, CIVIC has documented civilian suffering on a massive scale and calls on all parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate ceasefire, to take practical steps to minimize civilian harm and assist civilians, and to address the divisions that led to eruption of violence.
“Yemenis face almost unimaginable challenges to their immediate safety and an uncertain future,” said Sahr Muhammedally Senior Program Manager for MENA at the Center for Civilians in Conflict. “Parties to the conflict have a responsibility to protect civilians and address the needs of affected communities to begin stabilizing the country.”
“We Lived in Days in Hell” was researched in Aden, Hadramout, Mareb, Sana’a, and Taiz governorates, and draws on first-person stories to reveal civilian perceptions of the northern Houthis, the government of President Abdrabuh Mansoor Hadi in the South, and the Saudi-led coalition which is backing the Hadi government.
In addition to the immediate dangers of fighting, civilians have been arbitrarily detained by Yemeni Elite Forces trained by members of the Saudi-led coalition in Hadramout governorate, and journalists and political opponents have been subject to ill treatment and forced disappearances at the hands of the Houthi-Saleh forces.
The report reveals civilians’ needs and expectations of protection and assistance to rebuild their lives, concerns about military and security forces oversight, and civilian views on how to address the grievances that led to violence by involving local communities in the peace process.
Civilian harm, as described by civilians in this report, includes death, injuries, and destruction of property, as well as displacement and forced disappearances. All parties to the conflict in Yemen are responsible for civilian harm and have failed to take necessary precautionary measures to minimize civilian harm when engaging a military target. In some cases, reports indicate that civilians were deliberately targeted.
What remains constant across the territory is the inability for civilians to get any recourse from any of the armed actors. A 46-year-old man from Majzer, Mareb said, “We would meet with [the] party that caused us harm and they would apologize, but blame the other side for what happened. I don’t trust anyone. All sides are criminals and they have n o conscience whatsoever.” When asked what civilians did to protect themselves during the conflict, many civilians said they left their homes. “We just ran from one neighborhood to another. It’s all we could do,” said a 43-year-old woman from Aden. In Sana’a, civilians said that they either moved to safer areas or stayed in ground floor away from windows, especially when they heard coalition fighter jets. “We could only flee from one place to another. There is no safe place,” said a 55-year-old man.
From the beginning of the conflict, Houthi-Saleh forces have engaged in shelling of civilian residential areas, medical facilities, schools, and other civilian infrastructure, causing many civilians in Taiz and Aden to flee. Civilians in both cities reported deliberate sniper attacks against civilians, accusing the Houthi-Saleh forces of engaging in this practice.
On the other side, Saudi-led coalition strikes caused deaths, injuries, and the destruction of schools, medical facilities, and businesses in governorates in which CIVIC conducted research, echoing findings of other international and Yemeni organizations. According to the United Nations, the coalition is responsible for 60 percent of the civilian casualties since it intervened in March 2015. Civilians living in Sana’a, like their fellow citizens in Aden and Taiz, concluded that they were deliberately targeted. “Saudis did not observe any law or values,” said a 40-year-old woman in Sana’a. “They bombed civilians. They killed humans, trees, and even animals did not escape their aggression,” she added. The coalition has investigated some allegations of civilian harm, and for some incidents acknowledged mistakes and failures of personnel to follow rules of engagement (ROEs). It is unclear, however, whether anyone was held accountable for these acts, and whether the coalition instituted any changes to prevent the recurrence of such instances.
Our research also documented incidents of forced displacement of civilians, as well as forced disappearances and ill treatment of journalists and opponents by the Houthi-Saleh forces. Civilians have also been arbitrarily detained by Yemeni Elite Forces— who are trained by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—in Hadramout governorate on suspicion of being affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
http://civiliansinconflict.org/resources/pr/new-civic-report-stability-in-yemen-rests-on-civilian-protection and http://civiliansinconflict.org/resources/pub/we-lived-days-in-hell-civilian-perspectives-of-the-conflict-in-yemen and in full
http://civiliansinconflict.org/uploads/files/publications/CIVIC_Report_Yemen_2016.pdf
My comment: A great documentation. But it seems not quite political neutral, but seems to show more sympathy for the Hadi government. Recommendations are given to the “Government of Yemen”: they mean the Hadi government. The recommendations are those you could expect for a government. And there are recommendations to “the Houthi De Facto Authorities in Sana’a”. What a screwed expression for not calling a government just “government”! They should “De-escalate the conflict“ – while the Hadi government side is not asked this. And they should “Investigate allegations of civilian harm attributed to Houthi-Saleh forces and hold persons accountable.“ The Hadi government should not. – And the Saudi government is not asked to stop its bombing campaign, just to “Review current rules of engagement, guidance, and targeting procedures to ensure adherence to IHL and best practices to minimize civilian harm.” That’s simply bullshit, that’s declaring further air strikes for legal and acceptable. And the Saudis should “investigate all allegations of civilian harm, including from international and Yemeni organizations.” Different to the Houthis, nobody should be held accountable. – It is well known thet self-examination is a joke. The CIVIC report does not require an independent international investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Yemen. – And, a last point of critic: For a balanceds report, I would have asked to interview people from Saada and Hodeida as well. Of course, this is easy to ask – and difficult to really go there and do it.
10.1.2017 – Middle East Eye (** A P)
UK helped train Saudi unit accused of whitewashing Yemen war crimes
Britain trained war crimes panel, led by controversial Bahraini judge, which campaigners have condemned as partisan
The British military has provided training to a Saudi war crimes investigations unit headed by a Bahraini judge accused of sentencing peaceful protesters to lengthy jail terms, where they were often tortured.
Campaigners say the training, which was detailed in Foreign Office documents released on Monday, make the British government complicit in both whitewashing abuses in Bahrain and the failure to properly investigate potential war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
The appointment last year of Colonel Mansour al-Mansour, a military lawyer, as a legal adviser to the Saudi-led Joint Incident Assessments Team (JIAT) was heavily criticised by human rights groups at the time, who said the military judge was complicit in torture in the wake of pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Colonel Mansour was the presiding judge of the National Security Court, which oversaw the lengthy detention of more than 300 protesters in what amounted to military trials.
Many of the protesters went on to claim they were tortured while in custody.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “It is farcical that the judge who condemned torture victims to life imprisonment in Bahrain is now in charge of investigating the murder of civilians in Yemen.”
“With Mansour, the UK has trained a serial violator of human rights to investigate violations of humanitarian law. Mansour's role in JIAT speaks to its absence of credibility as a body, and is an insult to his Bahraini victims and to the civilians of Yemen. The UK must end its support of white-washing mechanisms in the Gulf.”
The Foreign Office confirmed that the UK had "supported the development of the Coalition JIAT and through the Ministry of Defence has delivered two training sessions in Saudi Arabia on the process of investigating alleged violations of Humanitarian Law (IHL)".
"The UK has not been directly involved in investigations undertaken by the JIAT; has not provided any specific operational advice to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for operations in Yemen; and has not provided training on political authorisation of military operations.
"However, the UK has provided support, advice and training in order to assist in the establishment of a process to undertake investigations into alleged civilian casualty incidents."
The Saudi-led coalition set up the JIAT in February in the wake of international pressure over civilian deaths, including the bombing of Doctors Without Borders facilities in the country.
The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has used the JIAT report to reject calls to end British weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, saying there was no "clear breach" of international humanitarian law in the conflict.
However, the team was attacked as “inadequate” by human right groups, which insist an independent inquiry is needed to settle mounting controversy and provide accountability for possible war crimes.
Details of the training were released following a Freedom of Information Act request, which also detailed how British officials attended a JIAT media conference in August led by Mansour.
At the event Mansour largely absolved the Saudi-led coalition of responsibility for civilian deaths.
The FCO response also said the British military has not been directly involved in investigations undertaken by the JIAT and that it has not provided any specific operational advice to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for operations in Yemen – by Jamie Merrill
My comment: That really should be treated as what it is: A First Class political scandal. And that is the document in question:
10.1.2017 – British Government (A P)
FOI release: meetings with JIAT about Yemen
FOI 0975-16 explains the Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) was set up in May 2016 to assess Saudi Arabian military activity in Yemen. The UK has provided support, advice and training for JIAT and officials from the British Embassy Riyadh have had regular contact with members of JIAT
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/582264/FOI_0975-16.pdf
My comment: The British government taking for serious that the Saudis should “investigate” their own war crimes – the result was whitewashing, and just a gain of time for more British arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
Comment by Judith Brown: The links between the U.K. government and the Saudi body that is meant to be investigating allegations that it has committed war crimes - judge and jury on its own bloody actions.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155104879598641
9.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (** A H K)
Report: 1231 persons killed and 7261 injured in clashes and shelling in Taiz last year
A report conducted by the Humanitarian Relief Coalition in the city of Taiz, central Yemen, said on Monday that 1231 persons were killed and 7261 others injured, including woman and children, during 2016.
The report pointed out that some of the injuries were serious which resulted from the sniping and the heavy random shelling on the residential neighborhoods.
The report added that 41 thousand and 44 buildings including houses, public establishments, trade shops, mosques, and schools were damaged because of the war in more than 15 districts in Taiz.
The report also mentioned that Taiz city is still suffering the lack of the water, electricity, and cleanliness services, as well as the lack of most of the medical services and medicines.
One million, 775 thousand and 744 families were forcibly displaced and had to leave their houses, neighborhoods and villages in the regions of al Waziyah, Haifan, al Selw, Saluh, al Tazziyah, al Dabh, Hathan, Ghurab, al Jahmaliah, al Maqaterahm and al Rabeeyi because of the clashes, according to the report.
The report as well warned of an imminent famine that could lead to a serious humanitarian crisis in Taiz governorate, especially that the humanitarian aides delivered by the international organizations are insufficient.
The Humanitarian Relief Coalition also renewed calling on all the humanitarian organizations and the competent authorities to urgently deliver the necessary aids and support to the governorate of Taiz .
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87883
My comment: In full it must be as follows: “1231 persons killed and 7261 injured in clashes, shelling and Saudi coalition air raids in Taiz last year
10.1.2016 – Russia Insider (** B H)
Slavery in the Gulf States, and Western Complicity
Slavery is alive and well in Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors.
"The brutal exploitation of millions of people from some of the poorest countries in the world by some of the richest countries in the world, and the world – and the West in particular – turning a blind eye."
Until 1963 it was still perfectly legal in Saudi Arabia to buy another human being at a slave-market, to use and abuse as one saw fit. That was 1963, the year in which the Beatles cut their first LP and which saw the assassination of President Kennedy.
That slavery was abolished, officially at least, in Saudi Arabia in that year, was only the result of intense pressure from Great Britain and the United States. Other Gulf Arab states were even more tardy in complying with international norms of human decency. Oman, for example, only abolished the institution in 1970; that is, a year after America had put a man on the moon.
Very well, the average reader might think; whilst the Arab states were late in getting rid of slavery, that, at least, is a thing of the past. Though some Gulf States, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, may still violate human rights on an industrial scale (none of them have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), at least they no longer hold people in bondage. Sadly, that is not the case: for the abolition of slavery in the Gulf States was entirely cosmetic, intended as nothing more than a public-relations exercise. The fact is, slavery still exists in this part of the Arab world, and this is a situation in which the West is fully complicit.
The “abolition” of slavery in the Gulf Arab states coincided with the rise of these nations to economic power and prosperity. As the oil revenue poured in, the demand amongst wealthy Arab families for nannies and domestic “servants” increased. Amongst the Arabs possession of domestic slaves was always regarded as something of a status symbol; and until the mid-60s the son of a wealthy Arab family would typically have assigned to him a youthful slave who would grow up and grow old with his master. Before the 1960s, such slaves tended to be procured from Africa.
With the official abolition of the slave trade in that decade, however, the Gulf Arabs looked around for an alternative supply of “servants”. Such, it was discovered, could be procured from southern Asia; principally from India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Domestic “servants” were also recruited from predominantly Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, but, as a rule, non-Muslims were preferred.
These new slaves, imported by the hundred of thousand, were lured to the Gulf States by the promise of a good salary, part of which they could send home to their families. In all the Gulf States, as well as further afield, in Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, the same system of deception and entrapment was put into operation. Under the now-notorious kafala system every immigrant needed a “sponsor”, a Gulf States citizen, who would be the “employer” of the new arrival. What the immigrant victim was not (and is not) told is that their Arab employer has almost absolute power over him/her – by Emmet Scott
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/slavery-gulf-states-and-western-complicity/ri18442
cp2 Allgemein / General
12.1.2017 – The Times (not rated B K P)
Yemen conflict must not be kicked any further into long grass
Yemen has been called the forgotten crisis of our time but it is a crisis which cannot be ignored. On the surface the situation in Yemen is similar to that in Syria: pre-war populations of well over 20 million are bearing the brunt of civil war, being displaced from their homes and becoming casualties of conflict.
But Yemen, unlike Syria, was already a very poor country, ranking 157 out of 184 on the Human Development Index. After five months of conflict the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that, due to the intensity and severity of the fighting, Yemen looked like Syria after five years of war.
To date this recommendation has not been accepted by the government. Its position is that the Saudi-led coalition is best placed to investigate. As we said in our report, it is a longstanding principle of the rule of law that inquiries should be independent of those being investigated.
Some mechanisms for investigation have been established but these have been slow to deliver results: only nine investigations have been completed so far, although the UN has recorded at least 185 incidents where humanitarian law is alleged to have been breached.
The conflict is nearly two years old. Yemen must not be kicked any further into the long grass. It is not acceptable to wait indefinitely whilst the Saudi coalition conducts its investigations. In the meantime people are starving or dying as victims of conflict.
We hope the House will support our motion which “calls for an urgent independent investigation into reports of breaches of international humanitarian law on both sides of the conflict” – by Stephen Twigg, MP
11.1.2017 – NATO Association (* B K)
Addressing Western complicity in Yemen
In particular, Saudi Arabia’s supporters in the West including Canada, Germany, the UK, and the US, among others, have drawn international criticism for appearing more focused on aiding a major Arab ally’s unlawful attacks and pushing counterterrorism efforts than they are in aiding the humanitarian crisis, even as they denounce the horrors of Syria. Instead, they have been responsible for supplying arms, intelligence, and refuelling to Saudi Arabia.
All of this support has indirectly led to the killing of civilians with Saudi Arabia being known to launch indiscriminate airstrikes.
State complicity in aiding and abetting war crimes by supplying intelligence and arms, and lack of outright condemnation towards the use of unlawful civilian targeting in the Yemen conflict has further implications for involved NATO members. The commitment to maintaining security seems far outweighed by the possibility of striking lucrative arms trade agreements designed to bolster economic prosperity for Western states and further solidify allied relationships with Saudi Arabia (which already wavered previously with the ease of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran). Even in the absence of formal tribunals and courts, states should not be able to act with impunity otherwise it risks setting a precedent for other states to follow suit and can only leave a larger trail of victims. Instead, NATO members and the wider international community should strive to play a more humanitarian and peace making role if the security of all is really to be prioritized – ba Farah Bogani
http://natoassociation.ca/addressing-western-complicity-in-yemen/
12.1.2017 – Kontext TV (B K P)
Nobelpreisträgerin Karman: Der vergessene Krieg in Jemen
Der Jemen werde im Kampf der arabischen Koalition unter Saudi Arabiens Führung und den Huthi-Milizen, unterstützt vom Iran zerrieben, sagt Tawakkol Karman. Die Zivilgesellschaft leide sehr. 10 Millionen Jemeniten seien vertrieben worden. Die internationale Gemeinschaft schaue bei den Menschenrechtsverletzungen jedoch tatenlos zu. Sie habe die friedliche Revolution im Jemen seit 2011 nicht wirklich unterstützt. Jetzt sei eine Entwaffnung der Milizen notwendig, um an die ersten Schritte einer politischen Reform nach dem Arabischen Frühling wieder anzuknüpfen.
Tawakkol Karman, Journalistin und politische Aktivistin im Jemen. 2011 erhielt sie den Friedensnobelpreis für ihr Engagement im Arabischen Frühling.
Friedliche Revolution und gewaltsame Reaktion: Der Bürgerkrieg im Jemen und die Rolle Saudi Arabien und Irans
Das Versagen der internationalen Gemeinschaft
10 Millionen in Jemen auf der Flucht: Frieden braucht Entwicklung (mit Audio-Datei)
http://www.kontext-tv.de/de/sendungen/nobelpreistraegerin-karman-der-vergessene-krieg-jemen
Mein Kommentar: Frau Karman ist dem Umfeld der Islah-Partei zuzurechnen. Mittlerweile betreibt sie knallharte Propaganda gegen die Huthis und Ex-Präsident Saleh und für die Hadi-Regierung und die saudischen Luftangriffe. Hier hört sie sich jetzt schon wieder etwas gemäßigter an. Der von Karman als Bezugspunkt ihres ganzen politischen Denkens glorifizierten Revolution im Rahmen des Arabischen Frühlings wurde eben von den Saudis und den Golfstaaten mit ihrem Eingreifen die Spitze genommen. Denn was die konservativen Monarchien an ihrer Südflanke am allerwenigsten brauchten und brauchen, sind Revolution und Demokratie. Die von Karman hier ebenfalls glorifizierten Jahre 2012–2014, beginnend mit der „Wahl“ des kaum weniger als sein Vorgänger korrupten Saleh-Stellvertreters Hadi zum Übergangspräsidenten stehen schon im Zeichen der Überwindung der „Revolution“: Nun wollte eben Hadi die Fleischtöpfe für sich haben.
11.1.2017 – UNICEF Yemen (A K)
Armed groups in #Yemen stop recruiting children and release the nearly 1,400 currently in your ranks (photo)
https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/819099418582466561
10.1.2017 – IOL (* B H K)
At World's End: Yemen remains the blind spot of liberal rage
Between 7-10 million people don't have enough food and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and nothing is being done
Rarely do humanitarian organisations use ‘famine’ unless they have to even though the declaration carries no binding action on the UN or a member state. That it should warrant immediate emergency action, or a ceasefire in times of conflict is a moot point.
Right now though, the people of Yemen are in desperate need for a show of some human decency.
The ongoing wrangle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for regional dominance has left Yemen tethering at the edge. Qatar, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, and the UAE are all involved, with the help, of course, of American and British firepower.
In fact, FEWS reports that staple foods are still loosely available in the market but the country's economy is so battered – businesses are closed, government dysfunctional, private enterprise collapsed – that no one has any purchasing power.
Not only does famine threaten survival, it eats at the moral basis of the society.
For instance, it was reported that child marriages were on the rise in Yemen. With incomes so putrid and insecure, parents are being forced to reconsider their options when it came to their daughters of 15 or younger. It is not as if such practices did not exist prior to March 2015, but war has a way of making a bad situation worse.
This is the cruelty of war. And as a forgotten one, Yemen remains the blind spot of liberal rage – by Azad Essa, journalist at Al Jazeera
http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/at-worlds-end-yemen-remains-the-blind-spot-of-liberal-rage-7370714
10.1.2017 – Southfront (* A K)
Militärische Lage im Jemen – 10. Januar 2017
Die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition macht gegen die Allianz Huthi-Salih in den Gebieten der jemenitischen Städte Taizz und Bayhan Fortschritte.
Vor Kurzem erzielten die pro-saudischen Kräfte einige Gewinne nahe Taizz. Allerdings sind diese Gewinne weit davon entfernt einen erheblichen Schlag gegen die Allianz Huthi-Salih darzustellen.
Weiterhin gibt es intensive Kämpfe.
Die Karte zeigt die militärische Situation im Jemen am 10. Januar 2017, 10:49 Uhr (MEZ).
https://de.southfront.org/militarische-lage-im-jemen-10-januar-2017/
and English version:
10.1.2017 – Southfront (* A K)
Map: Military Situation In Yemen On January 10, 2017 (Map Update)
Saudi-led coalition forces area advancing agaist the Houthi-Saleh alliance in the area of the Yemeni cities of Taiz and Bayhan.
Recently, pro-Saudi forces have achieved some gains near Taiz. However, these results are far away from a devastating blow to the Houthi-Saleh alliance.
Intense clashes are ongoing.
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-january-10-2017-map-update/
and map by Anadolu:
10.1.2017 – Anadolu (A K)
Latest situation in Yemen
http://aa.com.tr/en/info/infographic/3452
10.1.2017 – The Guardian (* B H K)
Medics in Yemen: as we fight to help the sick and injured, delays can cost lives
We nose our vehicle towards the first checkpoint on our journey south out of Sana’a on a road that will take us to Aden – a routine journey in order to monitor the work of International Medical Corps teams across the region. The state of the country makes such trips both tense and dangerous but also laborious and dogged by administrative hurdles – a bizarre combination, and one that makes travelling so very slow.
The devastation wrought by the civil war slows our efforts to help those suffering in a country scarred by years of conflict
Amid the beauty and busyness of lives being lived, at our hospitals and medical clinics our staff see young people queuing up for help with shocking war-related injuries. Some come to us almost completely burned from head to toe, while mothers bring young children who are severely malnourished and on the edge of death.
A dark past looms over a shaky present, where frontlines shift, loyalties change and alliances are made and broken – and in the middle, millions of people try to live their lives as best they can. There is no end in sight, and the fear is that even the most basic services supporting these people are finally set to collapse.
In such a fluid environment, speed is often the difference between life and death. Speed is being denied to humanitarian organisations like ours, a denial that makes a hard job all the harder for my teams of dedicated people. Each time I wait at a checkpoint, I consider it part and parcel of life in this most chaotic and dangerous of places. Each time I try to put out of my mind the true cost of such delays – a cost that can be measured in terms of lives lost rather than minutes wasted – by Giorgio Trombatore, Yemen country director for the International Medical Corps
My comment: describing a journey through the front line, from Sanaa to Aden. – With a Saudi coalition causing the greatest part of destruction and death, this war cannot be called a “civil war”.
10.1.2017 – Paul Tyson (B K)
UK sold 500 cluster bombs to #Saudi Arabia between '86 - '89 new figures show. "Limited number" used in #yemen.
https://twitter.com/Tyson585/status/818768503209684993
9.1.2017 – In the Now (* B K)
The Media wants you to focus on Syria and ignore Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcWXQyQfN8
My comment: A good short overview on the Yemen War.
9.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (* A K)
Engineering teams clear 600 landmine in Shabwa governorate
A military source in Baihan district of Shabwa governorate, southeastern Yemen, said that the government forces demining teams have cleared nearly 600 landmine from the areas they controlled during the last two weeks.
The source, in a statement posted on facebook by the government forces media center, pointed out that the engineering teams are going on clearing the mines in al al Saq front, southwestern Baihan.
It's worth mentioning that since the outbreak of the war in 2015 the Houthis have been used to planting mines in the public roads and the houses in the areas they retreat from.
This has resulted in the death and injury of dozens of civilians who return to their houses.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87884
and
9.1.2017 – Southern Hirak (* A K)
18k+ banned #Landmines planted by North #Yemen coup forces before driven out of #SouthYemen. Still killing kids. Biased media not reporting
https://twitter.com/SouthHirak/status/818564469521612801
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Eingebetteter MedieninhaltSiehe / Look at cp1.
11.1.2017 – DPA (A H)
Fast 1400 Kinder in Jemen getötet
Seit dem Beginn der Luftangriffe einer von Saudiarabien geführten Koalition im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen sind dort nach Uno-Angaben fast 1400 Kinder getötet worden. Mehr als 2100 Kinder seien seit März 2015 verletzt worden, teilte das Kinderhilfswerk Unicef am Mittwoch in Jemens Hauptstadt Sanaa mit. Die tatsächlichen Zahlen lägen wahrscheinlich höher.
Rund 2000 Schulen könnten nicht mehr genutzt werden, weil sie beschädigt seien oder für andere Zwecke eingesetzt würden. «Schulen sollten zu jeder Zeit Zonen des Friedens sein», forderte die Unicef-Repräsentantin im Jemen, Meritxell Relaño.
Mein Kommentar: Es sind tatsächlich viel mehr. Es werden nur die in die Krankenhäuser gebrachten und regulär registrierten Toten gezählt. Gerade in ländlichen Gegenden trifft beides oft nicht zu. Und nicht gezählt sind ebenfalls diejenigen, die aufgrund vermeidbarer Krankheiten, an Folgen des Hungers (den die saudische Blockade erheblich verschlimmert hat), an Folgen des Zusammenbruchs des Gesundheitssystems gestorben sind. Ein Kind alle 10 Minuten, das ist die Zahl von UNICEF selbst, da sind über 50.000 im Jahr. Und auch Bild berichtet; dass wir das zu einem erheblichen Teil unseren amerikanischen Freunden zu verdanken haben, erfährt man bei „Bild“ natürlich nicht: http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/jemen/1400-kinder-durch-krieg-getoetet-49729032.bild.html
11.1.2017 – Saba Net (A H)
UNICEF: 2016 was hard on Yemeni children
UNICEF Resident Representative to Yemen Dr. Meritxell Relano said today in a press conference held in Sana'a that 2016 was hard on the Yemeni children, especially with the high rates of malnutrition and the approach of the health system from collapse.
Relano reviewed UNICEF activities and programs implemented in 2016 WHICH included the delivery of health services to more than 1 million children under five years of age and 550 thousand pregnant woman, as well as vaccinating 5 million children under the age of five years against polio. And trating more than 237 thousand children who were suffering from malnutrition, in addition to providing 41 thousand liters of fuel for the central cooling units rooms.
UNICEF has supported during the 2016 treatment of 215,000 children who suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen, and provided vitamins and nutritional supplements for four million children under five years of age to enhance their immunity. However, this lifesaving work remains constrained due to lack of funding and lack of access to areas where intense fighting.
Relano adds: "We call on parties to the conflict in Yemen to provide for unconditional access to children in need around the country so that we can provide them with food supplies.
.Relano adds: "We call on parties to the conflict in Yemen to provide for unconditional access to children in need around the country so that we can provide them with food supplies and the treatment of children suffering from malnutrition and support the Yemeni health services."
There is still a lack of funding, as UNICEF requires US $ 70 million in 2017 in order to be able to provide health and nutrition services for mothers and children in various..
Relano stressed the need for all parties to respect international laws and conventions and to stop attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including housing, schools and hospitals.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452562.htm
10.1.2017 – TRT (* B H)
Film: Child Labour in Yemen
“I work at schools, in streets. I stopped going to school. I earn our living.”
11-year-old Omar Taher is a street vendor in #Yemen.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1240500842669610
10.1.2017 – MONA Relief / Rain Foundation (A H)
Modern day heroes, the world barely knows about or mentions @monarelief have fed almost 8 Million people in Yemen... Do you know who they R? (photos)
https://twitter.com/RainFoundation2/status/818833056865796097
For anyone who follows the situation in Yemen, all should support @monarelief, they have been quietly feeding people in Yemen everyday! (photos)
https://twitter.com/RainFoundation2/status/818827183422631936
The four wheelchairs are ready to be delivered by @monarelief tomorrow to the 4 disabled grandsons in Sanaa. #Yemen @monareliefye (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/818899218924453888
Im really happy guys,bc they r so happy The4disabled had received @monarelief's gift today n Sanaa.We delivered them the 4wheelchairs #Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/819155581336453121 and https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/819155581336453121
10.1.2017 – Al Araby (A H P)
EU targets 'alarming' food instability in Yemen
The EU has pledged 12 million euros to the UN to help ease the crisis in Yemen where 14 million people are now lacking access to adequate food.
Those affected include 2.2 million children who are suffering from malnutrition across the country.
"This is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. People’s access to food is rapidly worsening and urgent action is needed," said Salah Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen.
"The EU’s contribution will greatly strengthen our ability to collect critical data on food security so that swift action can be taken to avert a further deterioration in the situation.
"It will also boost efforts to build the resilience of farmers and herders, especially women, by helping them to increase the value of their agricultural production," he added.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/society/2017/1/10/eu-targets-alarming-food-instability-in-yemen
My comment: The EU is among those ones who have fueled war, blockade and hunger crisis in Yemen by its support to / selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
10.1.2017 – World Food Programme (A H)
Yemen: Emergency Dashboard, January 2017
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-emergency-dashboard-january-2017 and in full: http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ep/wfp289836.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/wfp289836.pdf
10.1.2017 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (A H)
Yemen Humanitarian Assessment and Monitoring Working Group: Monitoring Information Note
In August 2016, the Assessment and Monitoring Working Group (AM WG), a Technical Working Group of the Yemen Inter-Cluster Coordination Mechanism (ICCM), launched an online scoping survey to understand monitoring mechanisms that are currently functioning in the Yemen Humanitarian Response. This note builds upon discussions with monitoring focal points, in addition to the 25 responses received from INGOs (56%), national NGOs (24%), United Nations Agencies (16%) and a donor (4%).
What are we monitoring in Yemen?
Overwhelmingly partners are engaged in process monitoring – particularly, monitoring implementation status, postdistribution monitoring and monitoring during distribution. The focus of this type of monitoring is largely on comparing the number planned and reached; there is little indication of verifying targeting or efficiency, as well as beneficiaries’ satisfaction and quality of interventions.
Of the few partners engaged in context monitoring, the main focus is access and impact/outcome of interventions. Notably, there are limited monitoring interventions that seek to understand coping strategies, but this is largely due to the limited number of household level initiatives. Additionally it should be recognized that context monitoring is challenging; however, there are ongoing initiatives that monitor key indicators, such the Protection Cluster’s Taskforce on Population Movement and the FSTS – FSIS Market and Price monitoring.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-assessment-and-monitoring-working-group-monitoring-information-note and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Monitoring%20Information%20Note_v0.pdf and see also: http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-assessment-and-monitoring-working-group-assessment-approach-overview-briefing
9.1.2017 – UN Multimedia (* A H)
Audio: 14 million people going hungry in Yemen
In Yemen, some 14 million people, or more than half of the population, are not getting enough to eat and many could die; that's the bleak assessment of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The Gulf state has endured more than 18-months of instability as government forces and rebels, continue to battle for control of the country.
Agriculture, one of the mainstays of the economy has been severely disrupted; but now the European Union has stepped in to provide funding to more than 150,000 people to help them boost food production and nutrition.
Reem Abaza spoke on the line to Salah Hajj Hassan, the FAO Representative in Yemen.
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2017/01/14-million-people-going-hungry-in-yemen/
9.1.2017 – Ahmad Alghobary (A H)
With my friend's help ,we launched our program for 2017 by distributing blankets for IDPs in my city Dhamar #Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/818626249018974208
9.1.2017 – Ahmad Alghobary (A H)
My city Dhamar' youths inspires great acts of charity. They opened a bakery to help poor ppl and to end their suffering (photo)
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/818622649249185792
9.1.2017 – Ahmad Alghobary (A H)
starvation forces ppl 2 eat food frm rubbish I saw a famiy in #Ibb digging a grass to eat it,they didn't allow me to take a photo #Yemen
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/818578852192591872
9.1.2017 – The Independent (* B H)
Yemen civil war: Widespread starvation forces people to eat food from rubbish dumps
'I want to live in peace and I want to see my children safe from hunger, and not dependent on aid or dumps,' says man roaming street to feed family of ten
Starvation and poverty provoked by the civil war in Yemen is so desperate that the country’s poorest are turning to rubbish for food.
A 45-year-old father trying to feed his family of 10 and a 12-year-old beggar trying to feed his four siblings have each told al-Jazeera this week how they are sifting through dumps to survive.
The United Nations estimates 370,000 children are at risk of starvation and two million are out of school due to the war.
Mr Abdulla, from Sanaa’s Bait Bos neighbourhood, roams the city daily checking through rubbish piles for his family of 10.
“For several months, I have been out of work. I have not earned one single rial,” said Mahdi Abdulla.
“This has forced me to provide for my family by any means, including searching for food in the rubbish dumps or asking people for aid.
“It is my daily attempt to stave off the death of my family by hunger. I have become a frequent visitor of the rubbish dump. There, I also see my likes.
“I want to live in peace and I want to see my children safe from hunger, and not dependent on aid or dumps.”
Yemeni economist Ahmed Shamakh said: “Development has ceased in the country. Businesses have also shut down. This has largely contributed to augmenting the deterioration of the food situation in Yemen.
“Today, some civilians in Yemen do eat from the rubbish and take the leftovers they find at restaurants. This helps them survive.” – by Peter Walker
8.1.2017 – Global Voices (* AH)
Conflict in Yemen Takes Heavy Toll on Country's Children
“Hunger is the most dominant thought on Yemenis minds during this period”, Yasser Rayes, an author at the Yemen Times, recently wrote.
Over the past few months, several humanitarian groups have launched appeals to tackle the issue of hunger in Yemen, largely aggravated by the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of the country. As is often the case, children are the most severely affected by the crisis.
In August of 2016, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) foreign correspondent Sophie McNeill called it a ‘war on children‘. This ‘war on children’ includes the many reported attacked on hospitals by the Saudi-led coalition, including hospitals run by MSF, since the start of the civil war, most notably the bombing of a MSF-run hospital in Abs, Northern Yemen, on August 15, 2016, that left 11 dead.
The apparent targeting of hospitals has deepened the humanitarian crisis already occurring in the country. According to humanosphere:
The Yemeni section of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that cholera cases have increased.
According to UNICEF, at least one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen because preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, malnutrition & respiratory infections.
Erin Hutchinson, Yemen director for the aid agency Action Against Hunger, said: “We’re seeing a worsening situation as the conflict continues, and it’s not stabilizing. The needs are only deepening at the moment.” – by Viridiana Lopez
https://globalvoices.org/2017/01/08/conflict-in-yemen-takes-heavy-toll-on-countrys-children/
My comment: A short good overview.
9.1.2016 – UNICEF Yemen (A H)
Tons of therapeutic food brought in thro Aden Port are being distributed to severely malnourished children in Lahj & Shabwa, southern #Yemen
https://twitter.com/unicef_yemen/status/818510162948423680
9.1.2017 – Global Communities in Yemen (B H)
Global Communities has been working in Yemen since 2004 implementing humanitarian and development programs across a broad range of sectors and has continued to provide on-the-ground assistance throughout the current conflict. Programs have included providing emergency aid to communities affected by conflict; empowering young people through job skills development; improving the educational system by rehabilitating schools, training teachers and providing teaching tools; building the capacity of media and civil society organizations; and combatting child labor by reducing the number of children engaged in exploitative practices.
Emergency Assistance to Support Yemeni Communities (EASE)
With funding from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), Global Communities has provided emergency assistance to vulnerable conflict-affected populations since 2011. EASE helps meet emergency needs and addresses early recovery needs of vulnerable and conflict-affected populations living in the Aden and Lahj governorates in southern Yemen. Utilizing a holistic approach, EASE bolsters food security and livelihoods, improves WASH outcomes and promotes economic recovery activities to increase purchasing power for displaced populations as well as host communities.
Yemen Early Recovery Support (YERS)
With funding from USAID/OFDA, YERS addresses the post-conflict, early recovery needs of vulnerable populations in the Aden and Lahj governorates. The project focuses on food security through the distribution of livestock, economic recovery activities including the provision of market-driven vocational trainings and the establishment of Asset Building Groups. The project also promotes water, sanitation and hygiene awareness at the community and school levels. All activities are implemented through local partnerships to ensure community ownership and promote sustainability.
Yemen Food for Asset Development (YFAD)
With funding from USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP), Global Communities is employing an integrated strategy to promote food security among vulnerable households.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/global-communities-yemen and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2017-Yemen-factsheet.pdf
9.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A H)
King Salman Center distributes 300,000 food baskets in Al-Hodeida province of Yemen
Riyadh-based King Salman bin Center for Relief and Humanitarian Works is currently embarked on distributing 300,000 food baskets in Al-Hodeida province of Yemen, it was reported here today.
Fahd bin Ayedh Al-Osaimi, Director of Urgent Relief department said that according the plan which has already executed phase one of 20,000 in 15 directorates through local partners, some 150,000 food baskets were on the schedule benefiting 460,000 persons.
He said the program is part of the center's more than 110 programs already carried out in all Yemeni provinces in cooperation with 79 local, and international partners (with photos)
My comment: The photos from a former distribution. Will they manage this also under the Houthi / saleh government’s authority there?
Comment by Judith Brown: And now we have Saudi news. As if this does anything to replace the bombed roads bridges ports warehouses grain silos farms and markets that are causing Yemen to starve.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155100350833641
Comment by Judith Brown:
31.12.2016– UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (* A H)
Yemen Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 19 (31 December 2016)
Highlights
The closure of the Sana’a airport is denying an estimated 20,000 people access to life-saving healthcare abroad.
Over 5.3 million reached across Yemen’s 22 governorates despite obstacles.
People in Yemen are dying of preventable health issues.
Funding
$1.6 billion requested
$977 million funding against HRP
60 per cent funded (31 December 2016)
Trapped in Yemen
Taha Ahmed, a ten-year-old boy, suffers from a bone disease. He urgently needs medical treatment that Yemen’s health system can no longer provide; instead it is available in nearby Jordan. Yet, like thousands of Yemenis, he is not able to leave the country because of the closure of the Yemen air space and the ban on commercial flights to-and-from Sana’a International Airport. “The most difficult thing in life is to see your own son suffer", says Ahmed al-Qomri, Taha’s father. “I was working up to 18 hours a day to earn enough money for Taha’s travel and medical treatment, but the ban on commercial flights is something I simply cannot do anything about”. Yet, Taha is more fortunate than the many others who have had to watch their loved ones die from preventable diseases that could have been cured if they were able to access medical treatment abroad. “An estimated 20,000 citizens are trapped inside Yemen, waiting to leave in search of medical treatment. Many of them suffer from medical and health conditions resulting from the war”, says Mazen Ghanem, the spokesperson of Yemenia, Yemen’s national airline carrier.
Compounding the situation is the fact that the 21-month conflict has had a disastrous effect on the weakest health system in the entire Middle East region. Today, only 45 per cent of health facilities are functional and most are doing so at a reduced capacity due to a lack of resources, of staff, and of medical supplies. Many Yemenis cannot get the treatment they need, even for basic preventable and curable diseases. Sana’a International Airport was closed on 9 August 2016 by the Government of Yemen and the Saudi Arabia led Coalition (SLC) after the collapse of the peace talks that were being held in Kuwait at that time. Subsequent pressure from the humanitarian community allowed humanitarian flights to quickly resume, but, commercial flights have been suspended ever since.
Prior to the ban on commercial flights, Yemenia Airlines operated two flights a week to Amman and Cairo, with an average of 200 passengers per flight and the demand, at the time, far exceeded its capacity. According to Yemenia, a third of those travelling were sick and injured seeking medical treatment abroad. Following the intensification of the conflict in March 2015, "the majority of the Yemenia flights were like flying ambulances, almost humanitarian in nature, with a third of all passengers seeking urgent and serious medical treatment”, says Ghanem.
The only alternative for many is to take the risk of flying from alternative airports in Yemen, mainly Aden and Hadramaut. Both airports are located far from the national capital Sana’a, with a journey to Hadramaut likely to take more than 20 hours and Aden no less than 10. Furthermore, these journeys only increase the vulnerability of the sick, injured, and elderly given the multiple checkpoints, conflict zones, and highly insecure areas requiring crossing.
Since the closure of the airport, the United Nations has been calling on the Coalition and the Government of Yemen to allow commercial flights to resume their travel to-and-from Sana’a, especially so the thousands of sick and injured can receive the medical treatment and assistance they require. Until that happens, preventable suffering and deaths will continue.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-bulletin-issue-19-31-december-2016 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yemen_humanitarian_bulletin_issue_19_-_december_2016.pdf
30.12.2016 – Oxfam (* A H)
Oxfam Yemen Situation Report #34, 30 December 2016 ‐ Bi‐weekly
Many poor Yemenis do not have adequate access to essential services to protect them, or a social safety net to catch them when disaster strikes .Escalating conflict since Mach,2015 left an estimated 18.8 million people in Yemen in need for some kind of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 10.3 million who are in acute need (OCHA 2016) . The recent crisis has sent prices soaring while most households lost their source of income and farmers are unable to fuel their generators to pump water to their fields.
Oxfam GB Yemen has reached 1,013,000 people so far, across several regions of the country, through providing essential water and sanitation services and cash handouts‐ both vital for sustaining health and livelihoods during this difficult time.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/oxfam-yemen-situation-report-34-30-december-2016-bi-weekly and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Oxfam%20Yemen%20External%20%20Sitrep%20%2334%2030_DEC_2016_Final.pdf
26.12.2016 – World Food Programme (A H)
Map: Yemen - Emergency Livelihoods Assistance: Total number of Beneficiaries Targeted/Reached by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Partners - November 2016
http://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-emergency-livelihoods-assistance-total-number-beneficiaries-targetedreached-food-0 and in full: http://fscluster.org/yemen/document/yemen-emergency-livelihoods-assistance-0 = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yemen_fsac_emergencyliveli_gap_nov2016.pdf
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
11.1.2017 – Nasser Arrabyee (A K)
Thousands of trained Yemen tribal fighters join battlefields against US-backed Saudi invaders. Wednesday Jan 12, 2017, Haimah West Sanaa (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/819409796805885952
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/819409794679341056
Clashes erupt between Houthis and residents in Dhamar governorate
The Houthi militants and the forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh stormed on Wednesday a village in Dhamar governorate, central Yemen, on the plea of searching for wanted persons.
Local residents told Almasdaronline that three military vehicles carrying more than twenty rebels militants have stormed the Hisn Kadid village in Mayfah Ans district.
The source added that the rebels tried to kidnap two persons from the village, but the residents confronted them, which led to the outbreak of clashes between the two sides, resulted in the injury of two rebels, while Houthi reinforcements have arrived in the area
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87944
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A)
Houthis attack a house with machine guns and grenades and kill a civilian in Saada
A local source said on Wednesday that the Houthi militants have killed a civilian after attacking his house with machine guns and grenades in Saada city, the stronghold of the Houthi group, far north of Yemen.
The source told Almasdaronline that the Houthi militants surrounded the house of Ali Shetwi, and then shot warning fire for him to turn himself in, days after the latter has killed one of the Houthi militants in the same area.
"Shetwi refused to turn himself in, and opened the fire on the Houthis." Added the source.
"The Houthis, then, opened the fire from machine guns and threw grenades into the house which was partially burnt and Shetwi was killed".
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87938
My comment: Whether those always labeled as “Houthis” in these pro-Saudi reports always really aere “Houthis” seems to be dubious. That might be “Houthis” or other armed forces which – bader or better, that depends – fulfill the role of local authorities in a time of breakdown and war. All these reports want to ewvoke the feeling that bad violent militants harass civilian population. We never are told who these “Houthis” really are, why they come to “kidnap” or detain somebody, who he really is and what is objected to him. In the second e recorded here, the person himself “opened the fire on the Houthis”. What a nice guy. What do you think what any police in the US, the UK or elsewhere in Europe what have done in that case? The headline shows the propaganda bias best. Think about it when just changing the actors: “Baltimore city police attack a house with machine guns and grenades and kill a civilian in Downtown Inner Harbour”.
11.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A)
Houthi militias abduct dozens of Ibb's people in Sana'a
Militias of the Houthis and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday abducted dozens of people from Ibb governorate who resided in the capital Sana'a.
Local sources told Alsahwah Net that the people were taken to private custodies of the Houthis.
Militias of the Houthis last Saturday raided the village of Bani Saif of al-Qafar district, broke a house of a civilian, Ghali Obad al-Muradi, ransacked its content and abducted a number of the village's residents and took them into an unknown destinations.
Dozens of Ibb's people have been languishing for a year and a half in Houthis custodies in which they are subjected to different sorts of mental and physical tortures.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2711
My comment: From Islah party media with an evident propaganda bias.
11.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A)
Houtis illegally promote soldiers to high-ranking officers
An official document has revealed that differences sharply increased among leaders of the Houthi rebels due to illegal promotions of soldiers and officers.
The document cited that 146 soldiers were recently promoted to high-ranking officers, pointing out some of them were promoted to the rank of brigadier.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Interior told Alsharq Al-Awsat that the Yemeni government will not approve any promotions made by the Houthis.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2712
My comment: From Islah party media with an evident propaganda bias.
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
President of the Supreme Political Council Meets the British House of Commons Member
President of the Supreme Political Council Saleh Al-sammad met today at the presidential palace in Sanaa the British House of Commons Member Andrew Mitchell and the and UN Resident Coordinator to Yemen Jamie Mcgoldrick and General Director of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs George Khoury .
During the meeting, they have reviewed the humanitarian situation in Yemen and developments in the political situation and the role of the Nations united in Yemen and the peace efforts and initiatives made by the friends of peace and stability in the world and all parties that are facing the danger of Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The meeting reviewed the disastrous humanitarian situation in Yemen lasted for two years as a result by the Saudi-US aggression.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452457.htm
11.1.2017 – Hussain Albukhaiti (A P)
MP A Mitchell visitd #Saada #Yemen shown #UK cluster bomb Said"these weapon r defensive rather than offensive feels disturbed it was reused" (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/819276173737938957
MP Andrew Mitchell ful statement whn shown #UK bombs n #Saada N #Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/819283986824523776 https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625875121041809
10.1.2017 – Middle East Monitor (* A P)
Mothers’ group accuses Houthis of abducting thousands in Yemen
A mothers’ group in Yemen has accused the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh of abducting thousands of their children. “The year 2016 has passed but bitterness and pain continue,” said the Mothers of Kidnapped People Association. “A year has passed as thousands of our children are still kidnapped and hidden in Houthi and Saleh prisons.”
The group’s press release claimed that hundreds of the kidnap victims are being subjected to the worst kinds of torture, including starvation. According to the association, as many as 72 people were killed while being tortured in Yemen last year, including six in December alone.
“This issue is a secondary matter for all political negotiations,” the association’s statement pointed out. “The crimes have not been condemned by international or local organisations or human rights groups. No deterrent has been imposed to prevent kidnappings, which encourages those responsible to continue to kidnap, torture and even kill innocent people.”
The statement called for the release of all kidnap victims. It also called on the international community and the UN to prosecute all those responsible for the crimes.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
My comment: There have been abducated and detained people. This report sounds like propaganda anyway. If you try to get any information on the “Mothers of Kidnapped People Association” (in English) there is just one Google match: this report here.
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A T)
Police dismantle 3 bombs in Taiz
Police and popular forces dismantled three improvised explosive devices (IED) planted by unknown people in front of Al-Edhaa'ah(Radio) camp in Taiz governorate, a police official told Saba on Tuesday.
The bombs were dismantled on Monday by IED exports.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452342.htm
Remark: Must have been in the Houthi-held part of Taiz city.
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Taiz Governor: Army achieves great victories
Governor of Taiz, Abdo Mohammed al-Janadi said Tuesday that the army and popular forces have achieved great victories in the past two days against Saudi-paid mercenaries in Taiz.
In an open press conference, the governor said the victories gained in five front lines in eastern and western regions, including Jabal Habashi Mountain, Maqbnah area, the coastal areas of Khpop and Dhubabin districts near Bab al-Mandab'.
Al-Janadi confirmed that the army and popular forces have secured al-Ahkoom and Haifan areas from Saudi-paid mercenaries.
He called on mercenaries, traitors and misled collaborators who have sold themselves to the Saudi Satan to go back to the right path and turn themselves in to the Yemeni authorities.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452354.htm
Remark: The Taiz governor of the Saada government.
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Taiz governor Abdo al-Janadi announced the release of 30 Saudi-paid mercenaries, calling the rest to take advantage of the Supreme Political Council's general amnesty resolution.
AL-Janadi calling for other mercenaries to turn themselves in to the authorities and take advantage from the amnesty resolution.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452356.htm
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Foreign Minister meets IMO Regional Director for MENA
Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf met on Monday in Sana'a with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Carmela Godeau; and her accompanying delegation.
The delegation came to the country in an official visit will last for several days.
The minister discussed with the delegation a number of issues related to the challenges faced by Yemen towards immigrants and internally displaced issues and the possible ways to provide them with the facilities, as well as address migration issues and the influx of migrants to Yemen from neighboring countries.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452308.htm
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Agriculture minister meets FAO technical Team in Hodeida
The meeting discussed aspects of cooperation and coordination to support the implementation of a number of agricultural activities so as to provide farmers' needs and requirements of food security as well as the implementation of the improvement of the living conditions of farm families to maintain programs.
The meeting dealt with the aspects of the coordination between the FAO Office and the General Authority of Improving Tehama in a number of agricultural programs and activities, including providing good breeds of livestock and seeds of food grains in order to enhance and improve agricultural production.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452449.htm
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Agriculture Minister calls Int'l Organizations to help farmers
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452228.htm
9.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
Militias of Houthis break nose of detainee in Dhamar
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2623
9.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
Houthi academic threatens professor of Sana'a University with murder
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2622
My comment: Daily anti-Houthi reports from Islah Party media.
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A P)
The government demands the military camps out of Aden city, and Interior Ministry to handle security
The Yemeni government called on Tuesday the military authorities to take the military camps out of Aden city, Yemen's interim capital, southern Yemen, and assigned the Ministry of Interior to handle the security in the city.
The government has also stressed, in a cabinet meeting, on the restructuring of the military brigades on national bases to overcome regionalism, sectarianism, and partisanship, according to Saba News Agency.
The government also stressed "the need to rebuild the armed forces in terms of arming, training, and qualifying, and remove the security barriers that impede the traffic flow, as well as to reduce the number of military check-posts after taking the necessary security arrangements".
It also recommended the formation of a committee to be charged with advising those who return from the "deviant thought", in reference to al-Qaeda elements.
The government also directed to re-activate the Strategic Committee for Combating Terrorism, headed by the Interior Minister Hussein Arab, and to hand over a report on its work in the next cabinet meeting.
In this context, a report presented by the Interior Minister said that the security situation in Aden and the rest of the liberated governorates has remarkably improved, and the police stations, public prosecutions, courts, and the traffic police have been well functioning.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87937
11.1.2016 – AFP (A T)
'Qaeda' car bomb wounds Yemen security official
A suspected Al-Qaeda car bombing in southern Yemen on Wednesday seriously wounded a senior security official and killed one of his guards, a security source said.
Four other guards were wounded in the attack on the convoy of the head of the security services in the town of Loder in Abyan province, the source said.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170111-qaeda-car-bomb-wounds-yemen-security-official
10.1.2017 – Southern Hirak (* A T)
Bulletin South Yemen Counter Terrorism issue 7
9th January
Aden security forces raided a home in Mansoura district seizing explosives and detonators.
5th January
The battle in Shuqrah, Abyan, the Southern resistance kills 15 AQ.
Aden security forces seized explosives, IED components, and Yemen ISIS documents from two suspects coming from Albayda
25th December
Southern security forces detain two after finding materials used to prepare suicide belts in Zijabar, Abyan. Intended target was 115 brigade.
24th December
Aden Counter Terrorism Forces raided a shop in Abdulaziz area of Mansoura arresting 3 possessing and manufacturing suppressed pistols.
22nd December
Counter Terrorism task forces accomplish successful security measures over the past week by taking down a terrorist cell in Mukalla.
20th December
Aden Security Forces capture a wanted terrorist in Al-Mimdara. Suicide belt found in his possession.
17th December
Aden counter-terrorism unit capture a Aqap cell with huge quantities of C4 explosives
16th December
Southern security forces in Abyan disarm a road side explosive (with photos)
http://www.southernhirak.org/2017/01/bulletin-south-yemen-counter-terrorism.html?m=1
9.1.2017 – Al Araby (* A E P)
UAE build 'Zayed residential city' on Yemen's Socotra island
While the governor of Yemen's Socotra has praised the UAE for the construction of a new residential city on the Arabian Sea island, many Yemenis fear the intentions of the Gulf state in the country.
For years, concerns have been raised regarding the UAE's intentions for in Yemen, with many accusing the Gulf state of attempting to "occupy" Socotra island.
"Anti-Gulf voices in Yemen are suspicious of the Emirati activities in the south including Socotra. This suspicion is politically motivated," Yemeni journalist Khalid al-Karimi told The New Arab.
But to accuse the Gulf state of occupation is an "exaggeration", he said.
"The UAE is only implementing business ideas to create better development in this exotic tourist destination," he added.
"The Zayed residential city is one project of several others UAE has launched in Yemen's south... it can be said the presence of UAE is a matter of business partnership, not occupation.
But this partnership will "undoubtedly give a boost to the Emirati influence in the island and Yemen's south in general".
Socotra is a small archipelago of four Indian Ocean islands that lies some 240 kilometres (150 miles) east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres (240 miles) south of the Arabian Peninsula.
The almost-untouched island was recognised as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2008 for its unique plant life.
9.1.2017 – Gulf News (A E)
In the south, despite the government pledges to pay all public servants, dozens of army and civilian pensioners on Monday blocked a main road in the city of Aden demanding the government pay their unpaid salaries of several months.
Public servants in other liberated provinces also took to the streets in protest.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-announces-end-of-chronic-cash-crunch-1.1958961
8.1.2017 – Samed Socotra (A)
Good news for Socotra.
Yesterday the 7th of January 017, med Dream ferry started it's first trip from Mukalla Yemen mainland to Socotra island for the purpose of providing permenant safe and well-secured sea means of transportation for the population of Socotra.
Currently the route : Mukalla_ Socotra _ Mukalla and hopefully in the near future will serve between Oman and Socotra.
So we need to get further details about:
How frequency it sail between Mukalla and Socotra?
And How long does it take to reach Socotra?
The people of Socotra are highly appreciated and thankful the effort of Hadhrmout governor #Bin #Barek for providing the ferryboat for the isolated island of Socotra (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/Samedsocotra/posts/1833204126953388
8.1.2017 – Al Araby (* A E P)
UAE build 'Zayed residential city' on Yemen's Socotra island
The UAE is constructing a new residential city on the stunning Socotra island, but questions continue to be raised about Abu Dhabi's presence on the Yemeni islands.
While the governor of Yemen's Socotra has praised the UAE for the construction of a new residential city on the Arabian Sea island, many Yemenis fear the intentions of the Gulf state in the country.
Major General Salim al-Socotri thanked the UAE for its role in the Zayed Residential City 1 - a project funded by Emirates Red Crescent to shelter families affected by 2015's Cyclone Chapala and Cyclone Megh, Yemen News Agency reported.
For years, concerns have been raised regarding the UAE's intentions for in Yemen, with many accusing the Gulf state of attempting to "occupy" Socotra island.
"Anti-Gulf voices in Yemen are suspicious of the Emirati activities in the south including Socotra. This suspicion is politically motivated," Yemeni journalist Khalid al-Karimi told The New Arab.
But to accuse the Gulf state of occupation is an "exaggeration", he said.
"The UAE is only implementing business ideas to create better development in this exotic tourist destination," he added.
"The Zayed residential city is one project of several others UAE has launched in Yemen's south... it can be said the presence of UAE is a matter of business partnership, not occupation.
But this partnership will "undoubtedly give a boost to the Emirati influence in the island and Yemen's south in general".
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
11.1.2017 – United Nations (A P)
The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, today concluded a three-day visit to Riyadh, where he met with Saudi and Yemeni officials.
The Envoy briefed the diplomatic corps on the latest developments in the Yemeni peace process and the steps towards a new Cessation of Hostilities. During the visit, he also met with the Governor of the Central Bank in Yemen, Monasser Al-Quaiti, to discuss the economic situation and the urgent measures which are necessary to avoid further economic deterioration.
Newly printed Yemeni Riyals have started to arrive in Yemen. The Envoy is encouraging the Yemeni Government, other Yemen actors and the international community to take measures which will allow the resumption of salary payments in all parts of Yemen as the liquidity crisis is overcome. "We do hope that the funds received will help the country overcome the financial pressure and improve the situation. The humanitarian situation is very dire and urgent actions must be taken to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people," he said.
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/note-correspondents/2017-01-11/note-correspondents-special-envoy-yemen-concludes-visit = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/note-correspondents-special-envoy-yemen-concludes-visit-riyadh
My comment: Void. The UN peace talks need a totally new base and approach. This is the wrong man at the wrong place.
11.1.2017 – UNICEF Yemen (A P)
Parties to the conflict in #Yemen shd stop attacks on civilians and schs, hosps & water points. These are against the laws of war
https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/819096227287535617
Comment: When @UNICEF_Yemen @UN can't name and condemn properly the school bombing yesterday you know how corrupt and biased they are !
https://twitter.com/2flamesburning1/status/819295193862176768
10.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
Yemen's file to be temporarily removed from UN Security Council
Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations Khalid al-Yamani has said that Yemen's file is to be temporarily removed from the United Nations during the second half of the current January with the aim of giving a chance to efforts exerted by the UN Special Envoy Esmail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Al-Yamani told Alsaharq al-Awsat newspaper that the efforts of Ould Cheikh aim to activate the peace and follow-up committee , and resume the meetings of its teams in Dhahran al-Janoub in Saudi Arabia.
He stressed that the UN has not ignored Yemen's file. Meanwhile , the Sweden Presidency of the United Nations it will closely follow up any updates of the Yemeni file.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2664
My comment: The UN “peace” efforts are like swimming in the dry. They would require a total new base.
10.1.2017 – UN Children's Fund (A K P)
Statement attributable to Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF Representative in Yemen on attacks near a school
“One child was confirmed killed and four others were injured when two attacks hit near the al-Falah school in the Nihm district outside the capital, Sana’a.
“Attacks on civilian areas continue to kill and injure scores of children in Yemen. Instead of learning, children are witnessing death, war, and destruction.
"Since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015, the United Nations verified that nearly 1,400 children were killed and over 2,140 were injured. The actual numbers are likely to be much higher. Nearly 2,000 schools in Yemen can no longer be used because they are destroyed, damaged, shelter displaced families or are being used for military purposes.
“Schools have to be zones of peace at all times, a sanctuary where children can learn, grow, play and be safe. Children should never risk their lives only to attend school.
“UNICEF renews its call on all parties to the conflict in Yemen and those who have influence over them to protect children and stop attacks on civilian infrastructure including schools and education facilities, in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law”.
My comment: UN keeps Saudis bombing in Yemen.
10.1.2017 – Bahrain News Agency (A P)
Yemeni peace negotiations completion discussed
Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, here today, received UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
The latest developments in Yemen, UN Envoy's efforts for the completion of the Yemeni peace negotiations were discussed, as well as pushing ahead with the political process in accordance with the Gulf initiative, outputs of the National Dialogue and Security Council resolution 2216.
GCC Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Negotiation Dr. Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Ouwaishaq also attended.
http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/765000
My comment: “the Gulf initiative, outputs of the National Dialogue and Security Council resolution 2216” can no more be any base for a Yemen solution. As outdated as the constitution of the Roman Empire.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
Siehe / Look at cp1
11.1.2017 – Bloomberg (* B K P)
Saudi Cash Can’t Buy Mideast Clout
In Yemen, hardened rebel fighters uncowed by Saudi bombing
Kingdom’s bid to impose will on region founders in Syria too
Saudi Arabia has better weapons than its enemies in Yemen, no surprise in a war that pits one of the richest Arab countries against the poorest. And still the Saudis are struggling to impose their will.
The wider challenge for Saudi Arabia is to translate oil wealth into greater regional clout, something the country’s youthful leadership has vowed to do. There were few signs of success last year. The Yemen war grinds on; in Syria, Saudi-backed fighters were driven out of their stronghold in Aleppo; Egypt, kept afloat by Saudi Arabia’s dollars, has sometimes seemed reluctant to fall in line with its foreign policy.
And that policy is expensive, when the kingdom is imposing austerity at home as it seeks to rebalance an energy-dependent economy after the oil slump.
The conflict in Yemen wasn’t supposed to drag on this long.
“It’s hard to describe this Saudi intervention as a success,” said Stephen Seche, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen
The war’s public image has changed too. It began just as Prince Mohammed was emerging as the most powerful royal, and commanded widespread support among Saudis happy to see their country play a more assertive role. Government propaganda played up that theme: Billboards in the capital showed fighter jets flying past images of the 31-year-old prince, and state TV broadcast military maneuvers. Such images are rare now.
Even so, “support for the Saudi intervention and the war in general does remain high among the Saudi public,”
“I am certain many in the Saudi leadership have sleepless nights on Yemen,” said Paul Sullivan, an adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University in Washington. “The worst situations are those that drag on and have heavy costs, and no clear solution or ending. War is hell, and Yemen is an especially bad hell.” – by Glen Carey
Comment by Judith Brown: Fairly standard assessment of the war so far - there was one new thing, this article alleges that the Houthis are selling drugs to help finance the war. That's not impossible but I haven't seen this accusation anywhere else.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155110745138641
11.1.2017 – Bloomberg (A E P)
The Man Who Helped Saudi Arabia Raise $17.5 Billion Is Leaving
Fahad Al Saif is set to rejoin HSBC’s Saudi Arabian unit SABB
Al Saif oversaw country’s $17.5 billion October bond sale
The head of Saudi Arabia’s debt management office, who oversaw the kingdom’s $17.5 billion sovereign bond sale in October, is leaving to rejoin HSBC Holding Plc’s local unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Fahad Al Saif, who was seconded to the Ministry of Finance in May, plans to return to Saudi British Bank as head of global banking and markets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private. Al Saif will also rejoin the board of HSBC Saudi Arabia Ltd., the British lender’s local investment banking unit, they said – by Matthew Martin
11.1.2017 – Noto Wahabism (A H)
Film: A child in her wedding night already in bed waiting for her #Saudi 76-year-old husband to consummate their marriage.
https://www.facebook.com/NotoWahabism/videos/1100474260081155/
10.1.2017 – Amnesty International (* A P)
Saudi Arabia steps up ruthless crackdown against human rights activists
Saudi Arabia’s authorities have begun the year with an intensified crackdown against human rights activists dealing another heavy blow to the last vestiges of the country’s embattled civil society, said Amnesty International.
A string of activists have been detained or appeared in court in recent weeks in connection with their peaceful human rights work signalling that the authorities plan to continue with their ruthless crackdown on peaceful dissent. Among those affected is an activist who faced charges for providing information to Amnesty International.
“The latest string of arrests has sparked fears that 2017 will be yet another dark year for human rights in Saudi Arabia, as the authorities continue with their attempts to crush any semblance of a human rights movement in the country,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International’s Beirut Regional office.
“Human rights activists in Saudi Arabia are an endangered species. One by one they are vanishing – prosecuted, jailed, intimidated into silence or forced into exile - highlighting the authorities’ zero tolerance approach to freedom of expression.”
“Saudi Arabia’s relentless persecution of human rights defenders is a blatant campaign aimed at deterring them from speaking about the human rights situation in the country and working on behalf of victims of violations. Human rights activists who have been detained solely on account of their human rights work should be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Lynn Maalouf.
“Anyone who dares to speak out in defence of human rights in Saudi Arabia today is at risk. With no end in sight to this clampdown, it is more important than ever for Saudi Arabia’s international allies to speak out against this rampant repression.”
10.1.2017 – Al Araby (* A P)
Saudi Arabia detains two human rights defenders amid crackdown
The arrests of Essam Koshak and Ahmed al-Mshikhs are 'part of the ongoing attacks on human rights defenders' in Saudi Arabia, a monitoring group has said.
Saudi Arabia has arrested two human rights activists, one of whom tweeted a depiction of the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.
The arrests of Essam Koshak and Ahmed al-Mshikhs are "part of the ongoing attacks on human rights defenders in the country," the Gulf Center for Human Rights said on its website.
"No charges have been directed against either defender but it is believed that their online activities are the reason behind their arrest," said the group, which has offices in Copenhagen and Beirut.
It called for their immediate and unconditional release.
Koshak has been detained in Mecca since Sunday, the Gulf Center said.
On Twitter, he is pictured against a map of the Middle East and wearing Western dress including a flat cap of the kind popularised by the cartoon character Andy Capp.
Koshak describes himself as a "rights defender" and has tweeted Western media reports about Saudi Arabia. Koshak has also retweeted comments from other activists, including the banned Civil and Political Rights Association [ACPRA].
The Gulf Center said Mshikhs, co-founder of the Al-Adalah Centre for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, has been detained since Thursday in Qatif, an eastern district dominated by minority Shia.
Mshikhs, whose Twitter account shows him against a backdrop of Nelson Mandela, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Mahatma Gandhi, tweeted a Nativity scene showing the birth of Christ on Christmas Day along with a passage from the Quran.
10.1.2017 – Al Araby (* A P)
#Trending: Controversy over 'Saudi army officer renouncing Islam' video
A short YouTube video purporting to show a Saudi military officer abandoning Islam has sparked controversy among the Arab twitterati.
Controversy and debate over apostasy and atheism erupted among Arab social media users this week after a young Saudi military officer announced he has renounced Islam and fled to Germany in an online video that quickly went viral.
Abdul Wahid Abdul Mohsen, who claims to be a non-commissioned officer in the Saudi armed forces, declared that he had "left Islam" in a 90-second YouTube video that circulated on Friday.
The young officer, who claims he was also a private secretary to a Saudi general, also announced he will disclose information on the "war crimes committed by Saudi Arabia against civilians in Yemen", but only after he arrives safely to Germany.
The video sparked outrage among Saudi social media users and the Arabic hashtag #a_Saudi_officer_renounces_Islam quickly gained traction on Twitter.
Many Saudi tweeters called for the officer's immediate dismissal from the army, for referral to authorities and punishment.
A number however expressed support for the young officer, urging respect for personal freedoms and choice.
In the ultra-conservative kingdom, apostacy an offence punishable by death. In 2014, rights groups warned against a series of new laws issued in Saudi Arabia that criminalised atheism and dissent.
Last year, a young Saudi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism on social media and refusing to repent.
Different schools of conservative Islamic law both in Saudi Arabia, as well as other countries in the region, also render apostasy as a capital offence, although it was historically linked to the idea of treason.
9.1.2017 – Bloomberg (* A E P)
Saudi Arabia Hires PwC to Advise on $20 Billion Cost Cuts
Kingdom and consultancy reviewing $69 billion of contracts
Housing, transport, health and education projects under review
Saudi Arabia is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers on plans to cancel about $20 billion of projects as the kingdom seeks to shore up its finances, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Ministry of Economy and Planning hired the consultancy firm to review $69 billion of government contracts with a view to cutting about a third of them, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private. Projects under review include contracts awarded by the ministries of housing, transport, health and education, they said, adding that PwC’s role also includes advising on ways to cut project costs or privatize them.
Under Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the world’s biggest oil exporter is seeking to rein in spending to narrow a budget shortfall that reached nearly 300 billion riyals ($80 billion) last year after oil prices slumped.
Comment by Hussam Al-Sanabani: Stupid Saudi could save this if the stop their arrogant adventure on #Yemen
https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/818522995631288320
8.1.2017 – Raialyoum (* B P)
Time for a Saudi Rethink
2016 was a bad year for Saudi Arabia and its partners, and 2017 will be worse if they do not change political course both at home and in the region
2016 was a bad year in every respect for Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners generally. The kingdom’s cheerleaders who dominate the mainstream Arab media may claim otherwise, but this amounts to little more than posturing and self-deception.
The war in Yemen, which was supposed to be quick and ‘decisive’ when launched in 2015, still has no end, whether peaceful or military, is in sight, and the massive financial, military and human drain it has created is on-going and growing,
The Saudi role in Syria, after six years of lavishing money and arms on anti-regime insurgents, has been marginalized by Turkey’s surprise defection to the Russian camp.
Riyadh even had to abandon its stubbornly-held policy of maximizing oil production after its disastrous consequences became undeniable. It agreed to cut its output by 500,000 barrels per day without being able to compel its adversary Iran to do the same, thereby losing its decades-old status as OPEC’s mover and shaker.
Meanwhile, the kingdom’s economic and financial health experienced an acute downturn.
2017 may prove to be even worse, because Saudi Arabia is continuing to steadily lose friends and gain enemies throughout the region.
Relations with most if not all neighbouring and nearby states are poor.
The Saudi leadership’s attempts to shore up its domestic legitimacy and regional relevance have increasingly taken the form, and adopted the sectarian language, of posing as principal champion of the Sunni Arabs against the growing power of Iran and the Shia.
The fact remains, however, that Iran has been making one gain after another in the region while Saudi Arabia has been scoring successive losses.
For the past two decades in particular, Saudi Arabia has sought to use its financial power to control the politics of the Arab world. This is the main reason why the region has deteriorated to its current condition. Saudi bankrolling of various political and religious forces was not aimed at establishing a pan-Arab regional project to counter Iran’s – and certainly not Israel’s. Rather, it was directed at weakening – and even destroying — the main rival centres of power in Syria, Iraq and Egypt hat had traditionally been the region’s leading voices, along with less influential countries such as Libya and Yemen.
This was an attempt to exact revenge against all the regimes labelled as secular, leftist or pan-Arab nationalist that had opposed the US and Saudi-led alliance of Arab ‘moderates’ from the 1960s to the 1980s – an alliance that was instrumental in enabling and facilitating sustained Israeli aggression — and instead sided the rival Soviet-led camp.
It is ironic that the Saudi leadership should now be working overtime to try to dispel Western accusations that it has been ‘incubating’ terrorism in the course of its decades-old sponsorship of surrogate groups to use against its enemies. It has gradually been dissociating itself from the Wahhabi religious establishment that has historically sustained it, while publicizing plans to modernize Saudi society in accordance with Western precepts. This has included purging the most hard-line clerics from the influential Council of Senior Scholars, and curbing the powers of its ‘religious police’ to arrest, accuse and harass people and raid their homes in the name of imposing religious observance. This cannot fail to invite a backlash.
Given this bleak state of affairs and unpromising outlook, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states could be expected to conduct a thorough reappraisal of their regional and domestic policies — whether in the political, economic or military/security field– in order to cut their losses. But there has been no evidence of any such rethink by decision-makers, nor even that one is thought necessary – By Abdel Bari Atwan
http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=598496 = http://www.yementimes.com/en/contents/opinion/5153/Time-for-a-Saudi-rethink.htm
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1.
11.1.2017 – Paste Magazine (* B K P)
U.S. Bombs: How We Helped Break Yemen
America dropped 26,000 bombs last year. This is the story of a few.
The United States is helping Saudi Arabia bomb the poorest country in the Middle East. We need to stop.
The nation of Yemen stands on the brink of starvation.
the Saudis and their friends, including America, are intervening in Yemen. The Saudis are afraid that Iran is setting up a new puppet government there, so they want to put the old moderate government back in charge.
That’s the clinical explanation. What’s actually happening is that a lot of poor people are being killed by missiles, and bombs, and other munitions. Washington nods, and smiles, and gives the go-ahead. Americans refuel Saudi aircraft. Americans provide coordination with the Saudi military. Americans offer the Saudis a hundred other little favors. We are co-conspirators.
As a wise man once said, there are two powers in the world, America, and global opinion. A good rule of thumb for understanding world politics: whenever an American ally makes a big move in the realm of foreign affairs, the ally usually clears it with the American government first. This is not universally true, but it’s usually the safe way to bet.
That’s why this country is tangentially complicit in so many different kinds of human rights outrages. America pretending to have clean hands in world politics is like the beat cop pretending to not notice organized crime operating under his nose. Where our allies are concerned, we have a huge amount of influence.
Example:
Remember, this is all being done under the watch of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, so it’s totally morally cool.
According to writer Ben Norton, a famine monitor “created by the U.S. government has said the conflict is responsible for creating the gravest food security crisis on the planet.”
If you’re surprised that this is happening, and that we’re involved, it’s understandable. This isn’t the kind of conflict you see on the nightly news; it doesn’t make an inspiring story. Beltway opinion likes the Saudis very much, and so most of the mainstream media prefers to keep quiet about our morally-compromised alliance with an absolute monarchy. But in the past several months, our involvement has become too problematic to deny.
What follows is a lot of names and information you might find strange, and details that may at first seem boring. I promise this is important. These are real people. This is a real place.
In other words, this conflict comes down to a fight for power in a small country in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Is it worth this cost? We should care that thousands of ordinary people are being killed in the crossfire, and we are still helping. We’re like a man who shut down his dog-fighting ring Tuesday and declares himself ready for sainthood on Wednesday.
Forget the other issues: that Yemen sits atop the Bab al-Mandab strait, a water-passage that most of the world’s oil passes through. Choke that one point, and you could slowly starve the engines of the world. This conflict could “destabilize the region,” to use the easy phrases of international relations, but forget that too. We can rationalize away any malfeasance if we throw the net of justification wide enough.
Instead, we should focus on the important details: the deaths we have directly caused, and the damage to the infrastructure of Yemen, which is about to develop into a humanitarian crisis. We must stop playing in, and paying for, this game. This once, perhaps we ought to focus on the only side that really matters—the people’s – by Jason Rhode
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/01/us-bombs-how-we-helped-break-yemen.html
12.1.2017 – MbKS15 (A K)
#RSAF F-15SA (serial 12-1003) returning back from a test flight to Plant 42, CA — by: Jim Mumaw (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/819457809792323584
10.1.2017 – MbKS15 (A K)
Here's a photo taken yesterday of the #RSAF F-15SA (serial 12-1042) during a flight test at Springfield, IL - by: Job Conger
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/818822309477748736
My comment: US-Saudi complicity in pictures.
9.1.2017 – Harvard International Review (* B K P)
The United States in Yemen: How American Weapons Deals Enable Saudi Arabia’s War
Through a combination of ill-advised arms deals and recent military action, the United States has found itself mired in a conflict which it will neither be able to resolve nor exit easily. In order to avoid becoming embroiled in yet another unpredictable Middle Eastern conflict, the United States should retract its support for the campaign and pressure the Saudis to disengage, while allowing the United Nations to take the dominant role in the peacemaking process.
The irresponsibility and destructiveness of the coalition’s tactics have created a nightmare situation in Yemen.
While acknowledging the importance of the American alliance with the Saudis on the basis of its policy — namely to eliminate ISIS and to impede the growth and progress of other Jihadi groups — further support of this conflict is unconscionable in the light of the loss of life and damage done to the country of Yemen.
After the loss of countless lives and billions of dollars, the Saudis’ venture is no closer to achieving the goal of a stable government in Yemen. Instead of propping up a failing military campaign, the United States should halt its sale of military weapons to the Saudis and use its influence to push the Saudis to curtail their use of military force. The United States can use its influence within the coalition to bring the situation to a diplomatic solution through a power-sharing agreement, determined by the United Nations, which takes the desires of both the Houthi rebels and established government into consideration.
History has proven that the United States should not become entrenched in foreign conflicts, particularly in the Middle East. America is already involved through its decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia and through current support of the campaign in Yemen with both weapons and tactical support. The United States has garnered some responsibility for the outcome of the events there and it is incumbent on the government to prevent the further breakdown of order in an already unstable region by acting quickly to curb the bloodshed through advocation of the UN peace plan and the immediate end to sales of weapons to the Saudis – by Zoe Almeida
http://hir.harvard.edu/united-states-yemen-american-weapons-deals-enable-saudi-arabias-war/
My comment: Right, but: “The United States has garnered some responsibility for the outcome of the events there”: No, not just “some”. – “acknowledging the importance of the American alliance with the Saudis on the basis of its policy — namely to eliminate ISIS and to impede the growth and progress of other Jihadi groups”: That’s certainly a mistake to rely on the greatest sponsors of terrorism when trying to defeat it.
9.1.2017 – The American Conservative (* B K P)
The Atrocious War on Yemen and Our Reckless Gulf Clients
Last week, the Post warned the incoming Trump administration about continued backing for the war on Yemen
The U.S.-backed war on Yemen has been going on for almost twenty-two months, and in that time all that the Saudi-led coalition has achieved is to turn a poor country into one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes on earth by blockading it, wrecking its infrastructure, and devastating its economy.
My only objection to the Post‘s editorial is the editors’ mistake of referring to the relationship with the Saudis and the other Gulf states as an “alliance.” Calling them allies implies that the connection with them makes the U.S. more secure and it suggests that we have formal obligations to defend them. The latter certainly isn’t true, and it is increasingly difficult to see how the U.S. is more secure because of the support we provide to them. They take that support as a license to sow instability in other countries and embark on pointless wars that they can’t win and wouldn’t be able to fight without U.S. assistance. Indulging their reckless intervention in Yemen doesn’t serve any American interests, and it doesn’t seem to be doing the Saudis and their allies much good, either. Like other security dependents around the world, the Gulf clients are happy to receive our protection and our arms sales, but they do practically nothing to contribute to regional security. As we can see from their senseless war on Yemen, they actively work to make the region less secure than it was before. We don’t have a real alliance with them, and our interests and theirs are diverging much more often and more sharply than before, and U.S. relations with them ought to be changed accordingly – by Daniel Larison
6.1.2017 – Alternet (* A P)
Washington Post Editorial Board Slams 'Carnage' of US-Backed War in Yemen
The newspaper acknowledged the Saudi-led coalition has "carried out some of the most brutal attacks in a war-ravaged Middle East with substantial American support."
The Post likens the conflict in Yemen to a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and portrays the US motivations for backing the war as confused. But the reality is much more complex. Whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks has noted that "Yemen of significant strategic interest" — the impoverished Middle Eastern controls the narrow passage to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, through which 11 percent of the world's oil passes every day, and has access to the Arabian Sea, through which another 20 percent of the world's oil passes. Likewise, ABC News has pointed out that 3 to 4 million barrels of oil travel daily through the waters off of Yemen's coast.
http://www.alternet.org/world/washington-post-editorial-board-slams-carnage-us-backed-war-yemen
My comment: I was more critical to this editorial, in YPR 251.
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
Siehe / Look at cp1
11.1.2017 – Ekklesia (* A P)
High Court to consider legality of arms exports to Saudi Arabia
Between 7 and 9 of February 2017, the High Court in London will hear a judicial review into the legality of UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia for use in the ongoing bombing of Yemen. The review follows an application by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: "This legal action will set an important precedent. UK arms have been central to the devastation of Yemen and the humanitarian crisis it has caused. The fact that UK aircraft and bombs are being used in the destruction is a terrible sign of how the UK government is putting arms company profits ahead of human lives."
As set out in the claim, a range of international organisations including a UN Panel of Experts, the European Parliament and many humanitarian NGOs, have condemned the ongoing Saudi air strikes against Yemen as unlawful. The violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) found by the bodies listed include:
UK arms export licensing criteria say that licences should not be granted if there is a clear risk that equipment might be used in violation of IHL. By any reasonable understanding this should end arms exports to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.
£2.2 billion worth of ML10 licences (Aircraft, helicopters, drones)
£1.1 billion worth of ML4 licences (Grenades, bombs, missiles, countermeasures)
£430,000 worth of ML6 licences (Armoured vehicles, tanks)
Andrew Smith continued: "If our action is successful then it will set a vitally important precedent. If UK arms export criteria means anything at all then the government must end its complicity and stop arming Saudi Arabia."
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/23684
11.1.2017 – Press TV Iran (B K P)
UK supporting Saudi genocide in Yemen: Scholar
The UK government’s arms deals with Saudi Arabia, which is carrying out a ‘genocide’ in Yemen, shows London’s tendency to support totalitarian regimes around the world, says a British scholar.
Dr. Rodney Shakespeare, a London-based university professor, made the remarks while discussing an official report about Britain’s sale of illegal weapons to Riyadh.
“The United Kingdom engages in the disgusting business of supporting the most brutal autocratic regimes in the world,” Shakespeare told Press TV on Wednesday.
“I refer to the regime in Saudi Arabia, which is in occupation of Bahrain and we supported the occupation of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia, and we are supporting what is effectively a form of genocide by means of cluster bombs and the like in Yemen,” he added.
London has been one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to Riyadh for 40 years.
“This cowardly business continues at this moment because the UK is in cahoots with regimes that suppress any form of democracy in the Middle East and the secret behind this is we are in cahoots with regimes which effectively in practice support the expansion of Israel,” Shakespeare explained (with interview in film)
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2017/01/11/505826/UK-Saudi-Yemen-Fallon-cluster-bombs-Shakespeare
10.1.2017 – The Guardian (A P)
Foreign Office accused of breaking ministerial code over Saudi weapons assurances
Emails show it took 23 days for ministers to admit error in assurances that UK weapons were not used in breach of international humanitarian law in Yemen
The Foreign Office has been accused of breaking the ministerial code by taking nearly a month to correct false assurances that Saudi Arabia did not breach international humanitarian law (IHL) when it used British weapons in Yemen.
Internal government emails show ministers were told they had misled parliament by stating in four written answers that the government had made a direct assessment of whether UK weapons were being used in breach of IHL by Saudi. In fact, ministers had made no such assessment, but instead only assessed whether there was a general risk the Saudis had breached IHL.
An internal email chain reveals that it took 23 days to admit the error after officials informed then foreign secretary Phillip Hammond of it on 28 June 2016. The admission was eventually made after Hammond had been replaced by Boris Johnson on the last day of parliament before the summer recess, alongside 30 other written answers.
ilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, wrote to Theresa May on Tuesday to ask her to investigate whether a breach of the ministerial code had occurred. He called the delay in telling parliament “extended and unacceptable” – by Patrick Wintour
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/10/foreign-office-accused-of-breaking-ministerial-code-over-saudi-weapons-assurances and letter by Benn: https://mobile.twitter.com/hilarybennmp/status/819088583239864320/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
10.1.2017 – RT (* A K)
Britain admits selling 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, some used in Yemen
Britain exported 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s which may have been used in the current war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, an official report shows. The munitions are now banned under international law.
It is the first time the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed how many of the British-made devices have been exported to Saudi Arabia.
In a letter to the Conservative MP Philip Hollobone, seen by the Press Association, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “The UK delivered 500 BL755 cluster munitions under a government-to-government agreement signed in 1986. The final delivery was made in 1989.”
Fallon said the UK had not been able to carry out any surveillance of the weapons until 2008.
Last month, Fallon said although the UK had not supplied such weapons to Saudi Arabia since 1989, a “limited number” of cluster munitions from the UK were being dropped by Saudi-led forces in Yemen.
The defense secretary said he had asked the Saudis to destroy their remaining stock of UK-supplied cluster munitions, to which they reportedly agreed.
He told a House of Commons inquiry he did not know how many had been exported, but was satisfied the use of the bombs had not breached international law.
The revelations are likely to pile more pressure on the UK to stop selling arms to the Saudis.
In November, Britain refused to stop selling arms to Riyadh, rejecting calls by two parliamentary committees and human rights groups.
https://www.rt.com/uk/373200-cluster-bomb-britain-saudi/ = https://www.sott.net/article/339175-Britain-admits-selling-500-cluster-bombs-to-Saudi-Arabia-in-1989-some-used-in-Yemen
10.1.2017 – Oxfam UK (* B H P)
This is our red line. Time is running out for Yemen.
Yemen is on the brink of catastrophe. Time is running out to help. You can help stop British-made bombs falling on Yemen, fuelling the crisis for millions living in the Middle East's poorest country.
Our government is supplying arms to Saudi Arabia - a major player in the war, carrying out airstrikes in Yemen. Warplanes attacking Yemen have destroyed schools, hospitals and homes, and food supplies. The country is running out of food as a result.
We're stronger together and, together, we can help before it's too late.
Tens of thousands of Oxfam campaigners have told Boris Johnson to use his power to immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It's time to ratchet up the pressure. Join Oxfam in calling on MPs to draw a line on UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Write to your MP now and urge them to help stop UK arms falling on people in desperate need of aid.
Yemen matters. One of the world's poorest countries, Yemen has been ravished by war. More than three million people have been forced from their homes and nearly 2.2 million people are displaced. Since the war escalated in March 2015, 11,000 civilians have been killed or injured.
Yemen also matters because of what it represents. There is a line that must never be crossed - and it's called the Arms Trade Treaty. Oxfam supporters campaigned for many years for a treaty that stops massive human suffering by banning irresponsible arms sales. Campaigning as one, we won this international agreement. We need to defend it.
When the Government draws a red line, as it did helping to set up the Arms Trade Treaty, it cannot cross that red line. Like all red lines, the Arms Trade Treaty is one that must never be crossed.
2016 was the year of norm bashing and more public figures around the world thumbing their noses at long-established rules. 2017 must be the year when red lines are enforced not erased. We face uphill climbs, but we must stare unfairness in the face and fight harder to reach the top. Shouting louder and campaigning together, our calls for change will be heard by those with the most power and responsibility.
So many supporters have reached out about how they can shout louder and campaign harder than ever before for Yemen. Giving what you can to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal for Yemen helps charities continue their work saving lives. Urging the Foreign Secretary to immediately suspend arms sales adds to the pressure. And drawing your Red Line for Yemen will ratchet that pressure still further.
The mounting civilian casualties, the millions forced to flee their homes, and the collapse in health care and the economy, all point to one major conclusion; the Government must end arms sales and military support to Saudi Arabia now and bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.
Your campaigning can give Yemen hope. Draw your Red Line now – by Tom Hayes
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/blogs/2017/01/time-is-running-out-for-yemen
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
British House of Commons member arrives in Sana'a
British Member of the House of Commons Andrew Mitchell arrived here on Monday for a three-day visit.
In a statement made to (SABA) Mitchell said his visit aims to examine closely the situation of the Yemeni people because of the war, expressing his pleasure of visiting Yemen.
Meanwhile, Member of the Relation committee at the Parliament Bassam al-Shater stressed that Mitchell's visit is important in human terms, stressing that the British official would meet with a number of officials in the government and in the parliament.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452312.htm
Remark: More at cp5.
17.6.2015 – RT (* B K P)
Film: EXCLUSIVE Britain is arming Saudi Arabia in Yemen conflict
MoD confirms is arming Saudi Arabia in Yemen conflict where 80% of the people face humanitarian disaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etWKjt0o41s
Remark: In June 2015 I missed the film, only linked to the article: https://www.rt.com/uk/268324-uk-arming-saudi-yemen/
Comment by Judith Brown: This is a video of Save The Children spokesperson in Sanaa - so moving and shocking, please watch.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155104905933641
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
10.1.2017 – Publikumskonferenz (* A P)
Der vergessene Krieg im Jemen
Warum wohl wurde die Petition, die sich für einen Waffenstillstand im Jemen einsetzte, nur von so wenigen Menschen mitgezeichnet? Die Frage ist schnell beantwortet: Weil Jene, deren originäre Aufgabe darin besteht Öffentlichkeit herzustellen, sich über diese schändlichen Verbrechen gegen das geschundene Land ausschweigen. Warum alternative Medien für die Information inzwischen unverzichtbar geworden sind, beweist unter anderem die unverblümte Argumentation des ZDF-Moderators Claus Kleber zum medial vernachlässigten Konflikt:
„Es sind ernsthaft schlechte Zeiten, wenn ein Krieg in den Hintergrund tritt, in dem Tausende Menschen sterben, Wohngebiete und Krankenhäuser bombardiert werden und in dem 80% der Menschen auf humanitäre Hilfe angewiesen sind, die nicht mehr kommt. Der Krieg im Jemen tritt aber in den Hintergrund, weil der in Syrien so viel Platz in den Nachrichten verbraucht…“
Friedhelm Klinkhammer und Volker Bräutigam haben sich Gedanken zu den Gründen der Vernachlässigung der Kinder des Jemen gemacht.
Programmbeschwerde: Verhungernde Kinder im Jemen
In der Syrien-Berichterstattung hat ARD-aktuell mit großem Aufwand und reichlich bedenkenlos obskure Quellen genutzt und für das Leid der Bevölkerung in Ost-Aleppo nicht die terroristischen Besatzer aus aller Herren Ländern, sondern die Befreier aus Russland und Damaskus als Schuldige dargestellt. Das propagandistische Ziel: Akzeptanzwerbung für Söldner und Dschihadisten, sie sollten als annehmbarer erscheinen als die Alternative, dass Ost-Aleppo an die syrische Armee fällt und die politische Macht des gewählten Präsidenten Assad wieder stützt.
Gniffke, Schwenck & Co wollten im Einklang mit der gesamten „Westlichen Wertegemeinschaft“ und nach dem Willen des imperialen Vorturners USA den Status Quo eines grauenhaften Terroristen-Regimes erhalten und nahmen dafür auch die zahl- und namenlosen Opfer unter einer in Geiselhaft genommenen Zivilbevölkerung hin, die als Faustpfand und Schutzschild der Mörderbanden dienen musste. Besonders auffallend an dieser AgitProp-Berichterstattung war, wie vollkommen verlogen das Leid besonders der Kinder nicht als Konsequenz der Terroristenherrschaft, sondern als Folge der Befreiungsaktionen publizistisch „vermarktet“ wurde.
ARD-aktuell hat sich von dieser unübersehbaren Schlagseite in der Berichterstattung bis heute nicht distanziert, nichts nachträglich korrigiert oder sich gar für die schäbige, konformistische Fehlleistung entschuldigt. Nach dem Fall Ost-Aleppos spielte das Thema „leidende Zivilisten dann auch prompt keine Rolle mehr. Fortsetzung der Heuchelei war nicht mehr zweckmäßig, das propagandistische Ziel war verfehlt.
Mit den erschütternden Informationen über den grausamen Unterdrückungskrieg, den unsere Westliche Werte-Gemeinschaft am Golf von Aden, im Süden der Arabischen Halbinsel führt, sollen die deutschen Zuschauer nicht vertraut gemacht werden. Der schmutzige Krieg unter mittelbarer Beteiligung Berlins könnte das sorgsam gepflegte „Mutti“-Image unserer Kanzlerin beschädigen und den ARD-aktuell-Rahmen konformistischer transatlantischer Vasallengefolgschaft sprengen.
Den Jemen-Krieg kann man den Russen nicht anhängen, er geht allein auf die Kappe der amerikanischen und saudischen „Freunde“. Seit dem Beginn von deren Militärintervention im März 2015 wurden nach UN-Angaben mehr als 7000 Menschen getötet, die meisten davon natürlich Zivilisten. Im von Saudis zerbombten Jemen sind 2,6 Millionen Einwohner zu Binnenflüchtlingen geworden, jeder zehnte Jemenit hat Heim und Habe verloren und befindet sich auf der Flucht, täglich werden es mehr…. Auch das wird von Gniffke, unserem Menschenrechtsfreund und objektiven Berichterstatter, nicht als ständiges Nachrichtenthema behandelt, es sind ja nur Wüstennomaden, die Machtinteressen Washingtons gehen schließlich vor.
Wir meinen, die absolut defizitäre und einseitige Berichterstattung der ARD-aktuell trotz umfangreich verfügbarer Informationen über den Jemenkrieg ist mit den Programmrichtlinien unvereinbar.
https://publikumskonferenz.de/blog/2017/01/10/verhungernde-kinder-im-jemen/
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
11.1.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
Yemeni Ambassador to Pakistan directs to evacuate protesting students
Yemeni Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammed al-Oshbi on Tuesday directed to evacuate students from the Yemeni Embassy and end their protest.
Yemeni students studying in Pakistan have protested, demanding the embassy to pay their financial allocations in arrears.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2663
Pakistani security forces detain 16 Yemeni students
Pakistani security forces on Wednesday abducted 16 Yemeni students from the building of the Yemeni Embassy to Pakistan.
Yemeni students in Pakistan told Alsahwah Net that security forces arrested the students on the basis of a request of the Yemeni Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammed Mutahar al-Oshbi.
Al-Oshbi on Tuesday directed to evacuate students from the Yemeni Embassy and end their protest.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-2677
My comment: Due to the financial crisis of Yemen, there is no more payment for Yemenis abroad – neither students nor, at least often, employees at Yemeni embassies.
10.1.2017 – Amnesty International Spain (* A K P)
Felipe VI, viajante en Arabia Saudi
[Please sign and share: no Spanish war-ships to #SaudiArabia - ]
¿BARCOS DE GUERRA ESPAÑOLES PARA VIOLAR LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN YEMEN? NO EN NUESTRO NOMBRE
La empresa española Navantia está a punto de cerrar un contrato para la venta de cinco corbetas a Arabia Saudí, a pesar del riesgo claro de que se puedan usar para cometer violaciones graves del derecho internacional. Ayúdanos a parar esta operación antes de que sea tarde.
El bloqueo naval al que Arabia Saudí somete a Yemen desde marzo de 2015 tiene un nombre: es una violación grave del derecho internacional humanitario. Y los ataques indiscriminados de la coalición saudí contra escuelas, hospitales y población civil también tienen un nombre: crímenes de guerra.
Entre 2006 y 2016, España vendió armas a Arabia Saudí por valor de más de 1.300 millones de Euros. Hemos preguntado al Gobierno español si Arabia Saudí ha usado aviones, bombas y municiones españolas para cometer crímenes de guerra. Hasta ahora la respuesta es que no hay respuesta: el Gobierno español no sabe, no contesta.
La empresa española Navantia quiere construir cinco corbetas que España venderá a Arabia Saudí. De ser así, existe un claro riesgo de que pudieran ser usadas para cometer violaciones graves del derecho internacional humanitario, como el bloqueo naval saudí de Yemen o los ataques indiscriminados de la coalición, ataques cuyas víctimas son la población civil.
No queremos sangre yemení en nuestras manos. Ayúdanos a parar esta venta de armas.
9.1.2017 – El Diario (A P)
El rey viaja esta semana a Arabia Saudí con la intención de cerrar la venta de cinco corbetas
El objetivo del viaje, aplazado en dos ocasiones, es poner fin a los problemas en la construcción del AVE La Meca-Medina y que los saudíes acepten comprar buques de guerra construidos en Cádiz y El Ferrol
Arabia Saudí ejecuta un bloqueo naval de Yemen que hace imposible la llegada de alimentos al que era antes de la guerra el país más pobre de Oriente Medio
[King of #Spain intends to close the sale of five Corvettes (military ships) to Saudi Arabia while naval blockade to #Yemen continues.
He is travelling to the Kingdom this week]
http://www.eldiario.es/economia/Rey-Arabia-Saudi-aplazada-noviembre_0_599840532.html
9.1.2017 – Reuters (* B P)
Saudi-Iran crisis, economic woes strain Oman's neutrality
Oman caught between rivals Iran, Saudi Arabia
* Oman joined Saudi-led counter-terrorism alliance
* But remains outside a separate Yemen coalition
* Tehran ties may be key to boosting Oman economy
Caught between two vast neighbours locked in a regional struggle, Oman has long been to the Middle East what neutral Switzerland is to global diplomacy. But now its policy of being "friends to all and enemy to none" is under heavy strain.
Oman has never found it easy to balance relations with Saudi Arabia to the west and Iran to the north, but worsening rivalry between the region's dominant Sunni and Shi'ite powers is testing its cherished policy of non-alignment more than ever.
That policy has been felt far beyond the small but strategically-located sultanate.
Omanis believe this Swiss-style peacemaker role is vital in helping to prevent the Middle East from sinking even deeper into chaos.
However, an assertive Saudi Arabia, which is leading a bombing campaign against Iranian-allied rebels in Yemen, has insisted that the Gulf Arab monarchies draw closer together to confront Tehran.
At the same time, Oman is struggling with a vast budget deficit largely due to low global prices of its oil exports. Muscat is therefore looking to raise trade with Iran, following the easing of international sanctions on Tehran under the nuclear deal, to buttress its economy.
As a result, Muscat has had to walk a diplomatic tightrope.
Muscat surprised neighbours last week by agreeing to join a Saudi-led military coalition - not the one fighting in Yemen but a separate, larger grouping. This is officially aimed at fighting Islamic State and other militants but suspected of serving also as a counter to Tehran around the Muslim world.
And yet Oman may struggle to please its wealthier fellow Gulf Arabs consistently. They interpret neutrality as disregard for the Gulf's shared security during wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen where Riyadh and Tehran back opposing sides.
But a transformation of the foreign policy balancing act does not appear to be in prospect.
A former Omani diplomat, who declined to be named, described the move as a "largely symbolic" gesture to accommodate Riyadh and said it would involve "little material commitment".
There are economic risks to a Saudi rapprochement. Any perception that Muscat is allying with Riyadh may irk Tehran, analysts say. Iran has billions of dollars of foreign reserves in Omani banks and could pull the plug on promised projects in the sultanate – By Tom Finn and Fatma al-Arimi
http://in.reuters.com/article/saudi-oman-iran-idINL5N1EY0FY = http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.764119
9.1.2017 – AFP (A P)
UAE orders removal of 'Persian Gulf' from school book: report
The United Arab Emirates has ordered the removal from a textbook of the term "Persian Gulf" for the waterway that is the subject of a bitter naming dispute with Iran, a newspaper reported Monday.
The UAE education ministry stepped in after complaints that the book was using that name instead of "Arabian Gulf" that Arab countries use to describe the body of water, Emirat Al-Youm said.
The ministry said the fourth grade textbook, which featured a map with the name, had been on "trial and will be corrected in future prints," the daily reported.
The authorities would distribute stickers to "cover the mistake," it added.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/uae-orders-removal-persian-gulf-school-book-report-154418396.html
Comment: Skyrocketting level of paranoia in the UAE where a school book addressed to 4th-graders reported 'Persian Gulf' instead of Arabic Gulf.
In some places this is a HUGE problem: paranoid UAE, for instance
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1237974666255561
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
10.1.2017 – New York Times (* A K P)
Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen Appear to Have Been Made in Iran
Photographs recently released by the Australian government show that light anti-armor weapons seized from a smuggling vessel near Yemen’s coast appear to have been manufactured in Iran, further suggesting that Tehran has had a hand in a high-seas gunrunning operation to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
The weapons, a selection of at least nine rocket-propelled grenade launchers, were among thousands of weapons seized by an Australian warship, the Darwin, in February from an Iranian dhow that was sailing under the name Samer. The photographs of the weapons, a sample of the much larger quantity of arms, were obtained by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based international research center, after a long open-records dispute with the Australian military.
Iran has been repeatedly accused of providing arms helping to fuel one side of the war in Yemen, in which rebels from the country’s north, known as the Houthis, ousted the government from the capital, Sana, in 2014. The United States and other Western governments have provided vast quantities of weapons, and other forms of military support, to the embattled government and its allies in a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, contributing to violence that the United Nations said last year had caused more than 10,000 civilian casualties.
Matthew Schroeder, an analyst for the survey, said a study of the weapons’ characteristics and factory markings had showed that they match Iranian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers previously documented in Iraq in 2008 and 2015, and in Ivory Coast in 2014 and 2015.
The grenade launchers that were the subject of Mr. Schroeder’s analysis are the central component of a reusable weapon system commonly called RPG-7s.
They were among 81 launchers seized on the Samer by Australian sailors, part of a hidden cargo that included 1,968 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 49 PK machine guns, 41 spare machine-gun barrels and 20 60-millimeter mortar tubes — enough weapons to arm a potent ground force.
Although the evidence was not conclusive, Mr. Schroeder said, “the seizure appears to be yet another example of Iranian weapons being shipped abroad despite longstanding U.N. restrictions on arms transfers from Iran.”
Weapons from Iranian dhows would not be alone in reaching the conflict, which has been fueled in part by extensive arms transfers by outside governments.
Western governments, including those of the United States, Britain and Canada, have provided billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment, as well as intelligence and logistics support, to the Saudi-led coalition – By C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/world/middleeast/yemen-iran-weapons-houthis.html?_r=0 = http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/arms-seized-off-coast-of-yemen-appear-to-have-been-made-in-iran-1.1960062 and also similar article by https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170112-australian-navy-intercepts-iranian-arms-en-route-to-houthis/
My comment: Whereas it was absolutely dubious where this ship really was heading to. Eastern Africa (Somalia) also would have been a quite probable destination. It’s mainly for propaganda reasons when it is pretended that Yemen was the destination, as if this would have been sure at all or even the most probable explanation – what it is not.
Comment by Judith Brown: This is an old news story from nearly a year ago regenerated by this pro-Hadi news feed [referring to Middle East Monitor; would fit to NYT as well!] . It shows that there are few new stories or otherwise it would have been forgotten. The seas around Yemen are waters that are used for shipping between the straights or Hormuz and the North African coast. It is difficult to,prove end destination unless the cargo has landed. Additionally new militias and armies in Yemen are armed by Saudi Arabia and UAE - it would be great if there was an embargo on ALL weapons - and fighters who want to make money sell these in the many arms markets. These weapons are generally cheaper than weapons imported from other countries by arms dealers so imports are superfluous to a country awash with weapons. Sadly. How good it would be if EVERYBODY stopped selling arms to all sides in this dreadful war.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155110686703641
8.1.2017 – Newsweek (* B K P)
Halting the horror of weapons that massacre civilians
Cluster bombs, chemical weapons and other banned weapons are now commonplace. Britain’s admission that UK-made cluster bombs were used in Yemen highlights the dangers of weakening international arms control measures.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, the common name for the convention that prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Since the treaty was concluded it has garnered the support of 162 state parties and some 47 million anti-personnel landmines have been removed from arsenals and destroyed. While there are a number of factors that have contributed to this success, the treaty’s strong ban on use and the resulting international pressure were undoubtedly instrumental to this considerable reduction.
The success of this treaty however is threatening to be overshadowed by the failure of governments to both respect and enforce similar obligations set out in international law, and to insist on further restrictions where certain weapons are having a disproportionate and lasting impact on the lives of civilians. The UK’s admission that UK-made cluster munitions are being used by Saudi Arabia in the conflict in Yemen, the continued and relentless deployment of explosive weapons in the populated cities of Syria and the failure of the UN to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan all demonstrate the very real and brutal impact that failures to stop weapons proliferation and use can have on civilians caught up in conflict.
The UK secretary of state for defence, Michael Fallon, confirmed just before Christmas what had been suspected for some time, that UK-made cluster munitions sold in the 1980s to Saudi Arabia had been used against Houthi rebels in Yemen. While Saudi Arabia is not a party to the Cluster Munitions Convention,(opens in new window) the UK is, and as such the UK is prohibited from assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone to use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer cluster munitions.
Indeed the failure to respect and enforce conventional arms controls measures is serving to underscore their significance and impact, albeit in the most ruthless of ways, as civilians continue to bear the brunt of their use in conflicts around the world. The same is true of unconventional weapons – with chemical weapons prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention (opens in new window) having been reportedly used by both Syrian forces and ISIS in the past two years. States should not hesitate therefore to present a robust defence of weapons control and a reinforcement of the belief that arms control measures can work, have worked and are necessary and important to protect civilians – by Hanna Bryce
http://europe.newsweek.com/halting-horror-weapons-massacre-civilians-539548?rm=eu = https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/arms-control-eroded-civilians-suffer
6.1.2017 – The Economist (* B E K)
Pausing for thought over arms sales
Conventional weapons sales to developing countries persist despite concerns over how those weapons are used and other consequences
IN DECEMBER America’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) published its annual study on arms sales worldwide.
Saudi Arabia has been the biggest customer in the developing world for Western weapons.
Indeed, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute produces an alternative measure on the transfer of military resources (rather than the value of deals). Its “trend-indicator value” of weapons sales takes into consideration the worth of refurbished second-hand arms, among other things, and ranks Germany third in the world in the decade to 2015.
Qatar, a member of the Saudi coalition in Yemen, was the main recipient of German weapons, and also topped the latest year in the CRS’s report as the biggest purchaser. Many Germans are steadfast in maintaining the pacifist stance the country has held since the second world war, and are alarmed at the rise in German weapon exports 8with infographics)
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/01/daily-chart-3?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/
cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees
10.1.2017 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees (A H)
Yemen Situation - 2016 Funding Update as of 10 January 2017
172.2 M required for 2016
79.5 M contributions received, representing 44% of requirements
92.7 M funding gap for the Yemen Situation
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-2016-funding-update-10-january-2017 and in full: http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/Yemen%20Situation%20Funding%20Update%2010%20January%202017.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Yemen%20Situation%20Funding%20Update%2010%20January%202017.pdf
My comment: The gap is less than 12 hours Saudi aerial war against Yemen costs since more than 650 days.
1.1.2017 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees (A H)
2016 Yemen Situation - Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan - Funding snapshot as at 01 January 2017
The requirements presented in this funding snapshot refer to the 2016 Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan covering the period January to December 2016.
Funding level
RRP requirements: $94,130,731
Funding received: $34,817,523
% funded: 37%
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/2016-yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-plan-funding-snapshot-01 and in full: http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/Yemen%20RMRP%202016%20-%20Funding%20tracking%20all%20agencies%20as%20of%201%20Jan%202017.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Yemen%20RMRP%202016%20-%20Funding%20tracking%20all%20agencies%20as%20of%201%20Jan%202017.pdf
10.1.2017 – Almasirah TV (A H)
Film: The suffering of the displaced people in the camp Almnjurh Directorate Abs pretext by the Saudi American aggression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axkDOVO2fjM
10.1.2017 / 20.12.2016 – International Organization for Migration, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (A H)
Yemen: Task Force on Population Movement | TFPM - 12th Report Executive Summary, January 2017
KEY STATISTICS – DISPLACEMENT AND RETURN
CONFLICT RELATED: The 12th TFPM identifies, in connection with the ongoing conflict, 2,007,216 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across 21 governorates; the majority, 50%, are displaced in Hajjah, Taizz, Amanat Al Asimah and Sana’a. The TFPM has identified 1,027,674 returnees in 19 governorates; the majority, 68%, have returned to Aden, Amanat Al Asimah and Taizz.
NATURAL DISASTER RELATED: The 12th TFPM Report also provides figures on displaced and returnee populations in relation to displacement due to natural disasters. As of November 2016, 17,844 individuals remain in displacement owing to natural even
INTRODUCTION
This is the 12th report of the Task Force on Population Movement (TFPM), which is a Technical Working Group of the Yemen Protection Cluster. The report details the latest snapshot on displacement and return in Yemen providing indicative findings related to displacement/return trends, area of origin, duration of displacement, shelter situation and top priority needs.
The data used for the 12th report was collected through October and November, 2016. The TFPM collects data in monthly cycles to monitor trends and provide a further comparative basis for analysis. For this reason, since the publication of the 11th report there have been two ‘rounds’ of data collection supporting the validation of the statistics published in this report.
The 12th report identifies 18,582 unique locations that host IDP populations through interviews with Key Informants (KI) from an extensive network developed and maintained over the operational life cycle of the TFPM. This community level information was provided by 22,985 KI with the assistance of whom 19,011 Area Assessments were completed covering 98.5% of the 333 districts throughout the 22 governorates of Yemen. The districts not covered were: Al Dhaher, Ghamr, Haydan,
Monabbih, Qatabir and Shada’a in the governorate of Sa’ada.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-task-force-population-movement-tfpm-12th-report-executive-summary-january-2017 = https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/node/138490 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/task-force-on-population-movement-12th-report-january-2017.pdf
Infographic: Yemen: Task Force on Population Movement (TFPM) - 12th Report - Governorate Profiles - November 2016
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-task-force-population-movement-tfpm-12th-report-governorate-profiles-november and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/tfpm_12th_report_annex_2_profiles.pdf
cp13c Finanzen / Finances
9.1.2017 – Gulf News (A E P)
Yemen announces end of chronic cash crunch
Government receives billions of riyals worth of bank notes printed in Russia to pay pending salaries
The Yemeni government has officially announced the end of a chronic cash crunch and has already begun paying salaries of thousands of public servants across Yemen, including those provinces under the control of Iran-backed Al Houthis.
Yemeni prime minister Ahmad Obeid Bin Dhaghar said on Monday that his government, which is temporarily-based in the port city of Aden, sent salaries to all public servants on Monday after receiving billions of riyals worth of money notes printed in Russia.
Local media outlets recently reported that a cargo plane carrying 200 billion riyals (USD1=310 Riyal] in cash printed in Russia landed in the city of Aden last week.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-announces-end-of-chronic-cash-crunch-1.1958961
My comment: “Yemen” is the Hadi government. A similar article at Al Sahwa linked and broadly commented by me in YPR 251, cp13b. Please read this.
Here, even more dull propaganda: “Al Houthis, angered by the move, responded by cutting off the flow of money from the bank, preventing thousands of government employees from receiving their salaries.” The Houthi side tried to keep the Sanaa Central bank running, the lack of payment to state employees was the fault of the relocation maneuver of the Hadi government.
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
11.1.2017 – Gulf News (A T)
Yemen hunting for two French Al Qaida militants
80% of the top Al Qaida militants who held Al Mukalla are behind bars
Security authorities in Yemen’s province of Hadramout are searching for two French nationals linked to Al Qaida and responsible for staging terrorist attacks against government personnel and facilities.
The governor of Hadramout, Major General Ahmad Bin Bourek, said security services suspect the two French militants are hiding somewhere in the large province, but downplayed their ability to carry out attacks in future. Bin Bourek told the Saudi Al Madina daily on Wednesday 80 per cent of leading Al Qaida militants who held the city of Al Mukalla, Hadramout’s capital, and the neighbouring coastal regions for one year are behind bars, and the local security authorities are hunting for the fugitive militants including the two French nationals. “There are some Al Qaida inmates of Arab nationalities, but most of them are from Yemen.”
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-hunting-for-two-french-al-qaida-militants-1.1960345 and also https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170112-yemen-searches-for-two-french-al-qaeda-terrorists/
Comment by Judith Brown: I think this story contains a big joke. It says 80% of the Al Qaeda operatives who took over Mukalla are in jail. Really? Show me the evidence. Or is it a case of show the deliberate mistake.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155110693958641
10.1.2017 – Daily Mail (A T)
'They will kill me': Terrifying video emerges of kidnapped Australian soccer coach pleading for his life with a gun held to his head in Yemen
Craig McAllister, 56, was taken hostage in Yemen in September last year
The Australian has appeared in a hostage video with a gun to his head
In the video, Mr McAllister said demands must be met - 'or they will kill me'
He did not specify what the demands were.
But in a hostage video from October, the last time he was seen, Mr McAllister had begged the government to pay ransom in exchange for his release.
'I have been working as a football coach ... At the moment I am kidnapped by a group here,' he said in that video.
'They are requesting that the Australian government send the money they have requested – by Rachel Eddie
cp15 Propaganda
If looking into Saudi media, you really get an overdose of propaganda:
8.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
Deputy Crown Prince rules out direct communication with Iran as long as it sponsors terror
My comment: Nice. By the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism and terrorism’s ideological father Saudi Arabia.
6.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
Kingdom, US enjoy close brotherly ties; Vision 2030 is realistic, says outgoing envoy
The bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the US are similar to those enjoyed by two brothers, despite moments of discord.
Expressing this view in an exclusive interview to Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, sister publication of Riyadh Daily, US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Joseph W. Westphal emphasized that any disagreement between the two countries did not, by any means, indicate that the relations are under pressure. On the contrary, they remain deep-rooted, based on the principle of mutual cooperation, he said in a farewell interview.
Westphal was full of praise for the Saudi Vision 2030. He felt the Vision comprised key winning elements, making it a success even before actually achieving its goals. While noting the strong support for the plan by the Saudi leadership and the people, he said the government was fully aware of the challenges faced by the country, but the will for change will be the driving force of the Vision – an achievement by itself, he said.
The Vision makes it imperative on the Saudi people to bear responsibilities and pick up the challenges themselves, being fully aware that transformation will have a bearing on their lifestyles. The objectives of the Vision are realistic and achievable under the wise leadership, which knows well that the plan needs periodic review for eventual success, benefiting generations to come, the ambassador said.
3.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
Kingdom on road to progress, prosperity under King Salman, says Shoura member
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz is sparing no efforts to consolidate the ruling establishment and modernize the state institutions to cope with the needs of the present age, said Shoura Council Deputy Chairman Dr. Mohammed bin Amin Al-Jafri.
Speaking to Al-Riyadh Arabic paper, sister publication of Riyadh Daily, on the occasion of the second anniversary of King Salman’s rule, Dr. Aljafri noted that the Kingdom is making steady progress under the leadership of King Salman. "The coming years are expected to witness several sustainable developmental projects for the benefit of citizens and expatriates alike.”
Commenting on Saudi Arabia’s foreign relations, Dr. Aljafri noted that King Salman has always been taking initiatives at various political, economic and cultural levels in the best interests of his country and the Arab nation.
"The Kingdom, under the leadership of King Salman, has become an important country for world leaders, decision-makers and businessmen from different countries and walks of life,” he said.
The Saudi leadership’s wisdom and far sightedness have given the Kingdom the stature to play a leading in world affairs, Dr. Aljafri noted.
3.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
King Salman Center to expand and equip a Yemeni School in Djibouti
3.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
King Salman Fundraising Campaign For Syria, Donates Millions
"The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, has ordered a popular campaign to be launched ... to provide relief for the brotherly Syrian people," SPA reported.
King Salman has initiated the campaign by donating SR 20 million, while, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, for his part, donated SR 10 million, followed by the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who donated SR 8 million, for the same cause.
The King has been one of the most vocal proponents to the Syrian regime and its crimes against humanity, and has also been one of the largest supporter of rebel forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military.
My comment: The last sentence cited here tells it all: Saudi Arabia arming and financing all sorts of terrorists in Syria. – “the Syrian regime and its crimes against humanity”: what a joke to read this on a Saudi website! There were no beheadings and crucifixions in Assad’s Syria, no convictions of up to 1000 lashes, no prohibition to Christian cult, no death penalty for leaving Islam, no denunciation of other Islam denominations, much less restrictions for women… in Assad’s Syria.
9.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
A Saudi Campaign distributes winter clothes to 1080 Syrians in Turkey
3.1.2017 – Riyadh Today (A P)
Saudi National Campaign distributes relief aid to 517 Syrian families in Jordan
29.12.2017 – Government of Saudi Arabia (A P)
Saudi Arabia provides Aids to 26 million Yemeni
The Saudi Embassy in Cairo confirmed in a statement issued Tuesday, December 27, 2016 that the humanitarian efforts exerted by the Kingdom for Yemeni people through King Salman Center for humanitarian Aid and Relief Center. The first of its work was launched by a royal order to provide billion riyals for humanitarian relief in Yemen .. which enhances the effort carried out by the kingdom based on its approach to support all components and regions of Yemen, and in order to preserve its security, stability and safety.
The statement pointed out that the $ 456 million US Dollars provided to Yemeni people along with 98 vital projects, have benefited 26 million Yemeni citizen and included shelters, healthcare, education and food, in coordination with 73 international partner of organizations and bodies
http://www.mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/ServicesAndInformation/news/MinistryNews/Pages/ArticleID2016122910545419.aspx = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/saudi-arabia-provides-aids-26-million-yemeni
cp16a Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
11.1.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
10/1/2017
Daily report of the violations that are committed by the Saudi-led coalition (full list):
10.1.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
9/1/2017
Daily report of the violations that are committed by the Saudi-led coalition (full list):
11.–12.2.1017 – Sanaa at night (A K)
Buses evacuating women - children first from Alsyanah area bombed by what appears to be white phosphorous (to be confirmed)
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/818926911183355906
Coming Reports of many civilan in #yemen Sanaa the capital find difficulty in breathing due to unkown reasons after saudi coaltion bombing
https://twitter.com/maddllock/status/819276411928268807
Reports of mass suffocation & strange, perhaps, poisonous gases following #Saudi strikes on Al Nahda neighborhood in #Sanaa earlier.
https://twitter.com/SultanetZman/status/819306469891969024
BREAKING: Sana'a under bombardment, people are reporting severe breathing problems..... Chemical bombs??? (photo)
https://twitter.com/RSKarim1/status/819292590411497479 and as reminder: http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-admits-supplying-saudis-with-white-phosphorus-munitions/220553/
Intense airstrikes on Sana'a now. I guess Saudi driving point home that no limit to impunity when just yesterday strikes killed kids.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/819231474180296704
Sana'a still under frenzy airstrikes,,, 4 or 5 bombs till now.. The capital is shaking violently, it's been 2 years f this terror!
https://twitter.com/Hali_300/status/819230003414138880
The third airstrike is the closest till now, I don't where is it till now!!!
https://twitter.com/MahaNagi/status/819229229372018688
#Breaking #Yemen #Sanaa #Saudi aggression fighter jets bombed Technical Institute with 7 violent raids it was bombed dozens of times before
https://twitter.com/I4Yemen/status/819284052213694465
Pictures from Sanaa
https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/819265190797656064 (3 photos)
Another three airstrikes after an hour of silence!! Should we open the windows cuz of the pressure? But it's cold nowadays,, what a night!
https://twitter.com/mustafaelaghil/status/819264027008372736
It seems a horrible night in #Sanaa for #YemenChildren! Non-stop hovering by #Saudi jets and huge blasts shake the city..
https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/819261360907440131
Several loud explosions in central #Sanaa in the last 20 mins. The kind that rattle windows. Another just now!
https://twitter.com/ManalAlthurairi/status/819260883314634752
Sana'a under huge saudi Massacring airstrikes the jets still buzzing in the sky
https://twitter.com/Mhdf21/status/819260642905440256
Now : #Saudi airstrikes again in #Yemen capital Sanaa. 3rd round today. https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/819259936588910594
Airstrikes in sequence now in #Sanaa https://twitter.com/SMONASSAR/status/819259410451222541
Just heard an explosion but can not tell where and war jets are still hovering over Sana'a now.
https://twitter.com/zaidaahmed/status/819259047128035329
10:05PM another huge explosion
https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/819259026211033088
11.1.2017 – Living Yemen (A K PH)
Warplanes over #Sanaa. Just flying. Maybe looking for a school. Or a hospital. Or homes
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/819224877286694912
First huge explosion in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/819226122659516416
Huge explosion now again in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/819229151676821504
Three explosions heard in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/819228674666991616
The airstrike on #Sanaa tonight. photo via @HussamSanabani
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
22 rebels militants killed in coalition airstrike in Hodeida
A local source said that 22 militants of the Houthi and Saleh forces were killed and others wounded on Tuesday in bombing waged by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition fighters on their training camp in al Saleef area of Hodeida governorate, western Yemen.
The source stated to Almasderonline that four airstrikes targeted Houthis and allied forces gatherings in a training camp in Herfa area, behind the Air Defense Headquarter in al Saleef port.
Other local sources told Almasderonline that the air raids targeted two boats for the Houthis while they were in a training operation at the same area
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87941
My comment: The Houthi / Saleh side did not confirm an attack at a training camp. The propaganda wording “targeted two boats for the Houthis while they were in a training operation” seems to mean this and in the report after this:
11.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
At Least 15 Killed, Including Women, by Saudi American Raids
At least 15 Yemeni civilians have been killed on Wednesday, including women, after the Saudi American aggression targeted a boat transferring citizens from Djibouti to Mocka coast, western Taiz.
Fighter jets of the Saudi-led coalition waged six air raids on sites in the regions of Salif and Hali in Hodeidah governorate, western Yemen. In addition, two other raids hit Serwah district in Marib at night time.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60652&lang=en
and
11.1.2017 – Yemen Today TV (A K PH)
Film: Apache helicopters bombed fishermen in Taiz province
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SNDm-V1kZ0
12.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Fresh Saudi criminal airstrikes kill 4 children, 3 women in Hodeidah
Fresh US-backed-Saudi aggression warplanes killed four children and three women in when an air strike hit a family home in al-Hodeidah port city early on Thursday.
The home belongs to citizen Gumaee Mashasha in AL-Jah area in Bait Al-Fakeh district.
Thursday air strike on the Yemeni family was accompanied with a series of other air strikes and missile shelling from Saudi aggression warships that targeted several residential areas in the Red Sea port city.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452651.htm
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Coalition fighters bomb Houthi sites in Taiz
Saudi-led Arab Coalition fighters have launched several airstrikes on the rebels sites northern Thobab district, western Taiz city.
The fighters of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition also launched four air raids on the rebels sites northern al Omari camp, and two raids on al Jadid region, northern Thobab area, according to the source
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87942
11.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression warplanes kill 2 citizens in Hodeida port city
Two citizens were killed in airstrikes by US–Saudi aggression warplanes on Hodeidah port city overnight, a security official told Saba on Wednesday.
The citizens were targeted in the commercial port.
Meanwhile, the warplanes hit the Coastal Defense in AL Saleef district three times, and further two other strikes hit AL-Haly district .
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452495.htm
11.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi enemy continues bombing on Sa'ada
The US-backed Saudi enemy continued aerial and missile bombardment on a number of areas in Sa'ada province overnight, a local official told Saba on Wednesday.
The aggression's fighter jets waged four raids on Al Majda and another one on Tha'aban area in Baqem district.
The hostile airstrikes hit also a valley in the border district of al-Dhaher, as well as an intensive missile bombardment targeted Al al-Sheikh and Al Omar areas in Munabah district.
The aerial and missile bombing caused a wide destruction in citizens' property in the targeted areas.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452478.htm
11.1.2017 – Hassan Al-Haifi (A K)
Drone attack on Baquim, Sa'ada. Cluster bomb among among 4 air raids on Sa'ada
https://twitter.com/commonsense575/status/819167716384931841
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Residents: coalition fighters launch 5 raids on military camp in Sana'a
Local residents, in the capital Sana'a, said on Wednesday that the Saudi-led Arab Coalition fighters launched five raids on al Siyana military camp which is controlled by the Houthis and Saleh forces, northern the city.
These air raids came weeks after the heavily inhabited city has witness a period of quietness.
It is noteworthy that the fighters had bombed al Siyana camp more than once since outbreak of the military operations by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition in March 2015
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87945
10.1.2017 – Ahmad Alghobary (A K)
3 hours ago, #Saudi jets targeted a small fish market in Almokha #Taiz city and killed 3 ppl
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/818816359547146240
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
US-Saudi aggression launches raids on Arhab
The US-Saudi aggression warplanes waged on Tuesday three raids on Arhab district of Sana'a province, a local official told Saba.
The official added the hostile warplanes targeted Arorah area, causing huge damage to the agricultural land and citizens' houses.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452403.htm
11.1.2017 – Press TV Iran (A K PH)
Saudi attacks claim three lives in Yemen
At least three Yemenis have been killed in separate attacks by the Saudi military targeting western Yemen.
On Wednesday, the Saudi aircraft bombarded the port city of al-Hudaydah in west-central Yemen, killing two people, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported.
Separately, Saudi border guards opened fire at residential structures in a village in the Monabbih district of Sa’ada Province, which is located in Yemen’s extreme northwest. The attack left a civilian dead.
Saudi warplanes also dropped cluster bombs on the Wadi al-Jarrah base controlled by Yemeni forces in the kingdom’s Jizan region.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/01/11/505737/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Hudaydah-Saada-Jawf-Jizan
10.1.2017 – Press TV Iran (* A K PH)
Saudi airstrikes leave a dozen civilians dead across Yemen
At least a dozen people, including a woman and some children, have lost their lives and several others sustained injuries when Saudi military aircraft conducted a string of airstrikes against various areas across Yemen.
Saudi jets launched three aerial attacks against an outdoor market in the Nihm district of the western-central province of Sana’a on Tuesday morning, killing a little girl and two other civilians. Several people were also injured in the assaults, Arabic-language al-Masirah TV reported.
Eight people were killed and 15 others injured shortly afterwards when Saudi warplanes struck a nearby school.
Shabawah area in Ta’izz Province was also hit, though no reports of casualties were available.
Moreover, Saudi warplanes pounded an area in the Monabbih district of the mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada as well. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damage.
A woman also lost her life on Monday night, when Saudi jets carried out a strike in the same Yemeni province.
10.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
#Saada: Warplanes of the US _ Saudi aggression waged raid in Saada and kill a woman
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60455&lang=en
and
10.1.2017 – Mohammed Khaled / Hussain Albukhaiti (A K)
...a lady 7 months pregnant was killed, along with her unborn child, in an airstrike on a #Yemen farm today. Her children were injured....
Tday #Saudi #UAE strike on a farm n Baqim #Saada #Yemen kild a 7mnth pregnant her kids wer injrd Her home was hit4mth ago&she moved2the farm (photo)
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625471141082207 and https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/818916462576418816 and https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/818930276311175169
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Coalition intensifies airstrikes in Dhubab and al Mocha
The fighters and helicopters of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition have intensified the airstrikes on the Houthis and Saleh militants sites in Dhubab and al Mocha districts, western Taiz city, southwestern Yemen.
Field sources told Almasderonline that four raids have targeted the rebels sites in al Shabaka mount in Dhubab district, and ten raids targeted their sites in al Jadeed area as well as some boats used for smuggling weapons near Wahija area.
The coalition helicopters also launched five raids on the rebels sites in al Mocha city, and other raids targeted their sites western al Kadaha area in Dhubab.
The intensive aerial bombing is coincided with fierce confrontations and heavy artillery shelling between the government forces and the Houthis in the center of Dhubab district
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87885
My comment: That’s pro-Saudi propaganda – and that’s a report from the ground:
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Apache kills three civilians in Taiz
Three citizens were killed on Monday in the US-Saudi aggression airstrikes on the main road linking Moca and Bab-Elmandab areas in Taiz province, a local official said to Saba.
The official added that two Yemeni civilians and an African were killed when Apache targeted the main road linking Moca and Bab-Elmandab areas in Taiz.
At the same time, the US-Saudi aggression warplanes waged three raids on al-Shabkah Mount in Thubab district in Taiz.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452314.htm and also http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60319&lang=en
9.1.2017 – Almasirah TV (A K PH)
Film: Yesterday, #Saudi air strike targeted a car & killed 2 civilians in Monabeh area #Sadaa #Yemen Passengers are not safe in roads .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbRFX5D3jY = https://twitter.com/Hona_Almasirah/status/818564785461555201
cp16b Luftangriff der saudischen Koalition auf Markt und Schule / Saudi coalition air raid at market and school
10.1.2017 – Sputnik News (A K)
Acht Tote bei Luftangriff auf Schule im Jemen
Flugzeuge der saudi-arabischen Koalition haben eine Schule im Ostteil der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa angegriffen. Acht Zivilisten sind dabei ums Leben gekommen, 15 Menschen haben Verletzungen erlitten, berichtet am Dienstag der TV-Sender Al Mayadeen.
https://de.sputniknews.com/politik/20170110314066215-Luftangriff-Jemen-Tote/
Mein Kommentar: Nur Sputnik. Und das war’s auf Deutsch auch schon (11.1., 8:30). Später dann noch eine iranische Seite.: http://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i22243-8_zivilisten_opfer_von_saudi_luftangriffen_auf_eine_schule_im_jemen . Mehr nicht bis um 20:15 Uhr am 11.1. Was sollen uns in Deutschland schon Kinder im Jemen interessieren, die unsere lieben amerikanischen und saudische Freunde umgebracht haben? Das wollen uns unsere Mainstreammedien nicht zeigen. Am 12.1., 11:00 Uhr: auch nichts mehr. Wichtiger ist schon, dass Detlef Steves (Sie wissen nicht, wer das ist? Ich auch erst seit jetzt) 30 kg abgenommen hat (T-Online, Startseite mit Nachrichten, 12.1., 11:00).
11.1.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
10/1/2017
-Killed (7) civilians including (3) students and (1) teacher, injured (3) children of students by (1) airstrike that targeted shops next to Falah school, which led to burn a fuel station and damage a school building also damage (7) shops and a fuel station in Bani Ma’sar area, #Nehm_district, (with photos)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=755820754568292&id=551288185021551
Other reports, some more details, more photos, films, the following articles and links
10.1.2017 – AFP (* A K)
Five killed as air strike hits near Yemen school
An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition near a school in rebel-held northern Yemen on Tuesday killed five people including two children, a medical and local official said.
Thirteen other people were wounded in the strike that hit a market near Al-Falah school in the district of Nihm, northeast of the capital Sanaa, the sources said.
"An air strike by the Saudi aggression hit near the school, about 200 metres (yards) away," a Nihm local official told AFP, requesting not to be named.
"The deputy principal of the school was moving around to call students for attending morning queue but he faced his fate," resident Mohammed Ali told AFP.
A medical source at Kuwait Hospital in Sanaa confirmed the casualty toll, saying two children were among the dead.
A government military official had told AFP earlier that the school was hit by two missiles by mistake, accusing the Shiite Huthi rebels of keeping armoured vehicles nearby.
The rebels' saba.ye news website said eight people had been killed and 15 wounded, adding that the air strike hit the vicinity of the school.
My comment: “A government military official had told AFP earlier that the school was hit by two missiles by mistake, accusing the Shiite Huthi rebels of keeping armoured vehicles nearby”: Ridiculous, no excuse at all. The school is lying next to a market, and it seems the market was the real target. And for that, remember: Once again a market is targeted, and once again Houthi cars are given as a pretense. If you want to hit cars, why you should hit them just in the moment when they are next to a most crowded place? There have been several market raids for which exactly this pretense had been given (with no cars hit or found). Thus, these propaganda phantom cars again are moving around Yemen, as Wagners “Flying Dutchman” having motorized and touring Yemeni markets now.
10.1.2017 – BBC (* A K)
Yemen conflict: 'Deadly air strike' near school
A Saudi-led coalition air strike is reported to have killed five people near a primary school in north Yemen.
Two children were among the dead in the Nihm district, which is held by the rebel Houthi movement, medical and security sources told AFP news agency.
Initially the rebel-controlled Saba news agency put the death toll at eight and said the school was "flattened".
Saba cited residents and rescuers as saying the al-Falah primary school, about 53km (33 miles) north-west of the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa, had been "flattened" in Tuesday's attack.
The agency reported that eight children were killed and 15 others critically wounded, and that other casualties might be buried under the rubble.
But medical sources told AFP that two children were killed, identifying the other fatalities as three members of staff.
AFP also initially reported that the school had been hit but later corrected its story, saying a market near the school was struck.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38569932
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (* A K PH)
Urgent: 4 schoolgirls, civilian, killed in Saudi airstrikes on school
At least four schoolgirls and another citizen were killed Tuesday morning in fresh Saudi aggression airstrikes on a school in Nehm district, northeast of the capital Sanaa, residents and officials told Saba.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452346.htm
Initial death toll from Saudi airstrikes on Nehm school rise to 8 students
Initial death toll from US-backed Saudi aggression airstrikes Tuesday morning on a school in Nehm district northeast of the capital Sanaa rose to eight students, schoolgirls and schoolboys, according to residents, rescuers and officials.
Other 15 students were critically wounded in the Saudi brutal air attack on al-Falah elementary school.
Rescue operation were underway to search for possible survivors as many students were still under rubble.
The school was flattened to the ground following the airstrikes.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452352.htm
and
10.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Dozens of Martyrs and Wounded in Al Falah School
Saudi aggression committed bloody crime against civilians in the Al-Falah School in directorate of Niham northeast of the capital Sanaa .
The source confirmed for “Yamanyoon” the warplanes of the Saudi Aggression launched a raid on the Al-Falah school ,the raid damage the school and the casualties on both students and teachers who are inside it . Dozens of wounded and martyrs from the students and teachers they were in the school, the source add.
The sources said , rescue teams have recovered some of the victims from the rubble , and confirmed that dead the headmaster and the school’s agent Ali Ahmed Muzaffar and a number of teachers and students.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60439&lang=en
and
10.1.2017 – Hussain Albukhaiti (* A K PH)
#Saudi #UAE strike on Elementary School Canteen&shop n Nehim E #Sanaa #Yemen 8kild inc Deputy headteacher &6kids btw 8&12yrs old (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/818873308963831816
11yrs Ishrag Almoaafa The only body fully recoverd aftr #Saudi #UAE direct strike on alfalah Elementary School Canteen Nehim E #Sanaa #Yemen (photo)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/818890267583508481
11.1.2017 – Living in Yemen on the edge (A K PH)
The name of the school girl killed yesterday in the airstrike while going to school is Ishraq Al Mafaa and she is 12years old.
We cannot speak of her in the past as her legacy lives in us.
We have an obligation: to keep her alive seeking peace.
Most Bodies not recoverd Just body parts were collectd at Elementary school n Nehim E #Sanaa #Saudi #UAE strike happnd whn kids having Bfast (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/818882214851186688
and photos:
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625466997749288
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625469967748991
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1220228521401118&id=881240811966559
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1240994209286940
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/818846139617345536
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625512517744736 (preliminary list of names of killed)
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625543281074993
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1625511737744814
https://twitter.com/afaash2016/status/818854221047070721
https://twitter.com/AliMahaqeri/status/818841002475737089
and films:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUOcx-gl0BI = https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/videos/1625528107743177/ = https://twitter.com/L61LZFJUga8x3Ex/status/818882061939384320 (Al Masirah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJyVVL6NHRo = https://www.facebook.com/881240811966559/videos/1220756284681675/ (Al Masirah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GAy0zkZOQ (Yemen Today)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGmXL3os8I (Yemen Today)
10.1.2017 – Living in Yemen on the edge (* A K PH)
Our daughter. Our future. Our reason to smile. Our everything.
An air-strike has taken her life away, along with ours.
We ask what can justify the daily slaughter of our children.
An airstrike like the one of today targeting a school implies only one thing: whoever refuels war planes, whoever gives the coordinates of the target, whoever provides intelligence, sells bombs, supports this war is rotten inside.
There is no cure for your level of evil (photo)
11.1.2017 – Almasirah TV (A K PH)
Film: A visit to the family of the killed girl
The Director General of the Ministry of Education, Office of Human Ahmed, representing the Minister of Education, Professor Yahya Badr Eddin al-Huthi condolences to the family of the girl Ishraq Al Mafaa.
Educational delegation visited the Al-Falah School and targeted aggression Bgarath yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIjShafTn3U
cp17a Kriegsereignisse: Bab al-Mandab / Theater of War: Bab al-Mandab
11.1.2017 – Judith Brown (* A K)
It's not the presence of 'rebels' near to Bab Al Mandab that poses a danger to shipping. It's war.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628
10.1.2017 – Der Standard (* A K)
Neue Offensive gegen Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen
Kämpfe neu und heftig aufgeflammt – Arabische Koalition versucht, die Huthi-Rebellen entlang des Roten Meeres zurückzudrängen
Die Regierungskräfte im Jemen haben eine Offensive gestartet, um die Huthi-Rebellen von ihren Nachschubrouten über das Meer abzuschneiden. Sie werden dabei aus der Luft von der saudisch geführten Koalition unterstützt. Das Zentrum der Kämpfe entlang des Roten Meeres ist die Militärbasis al-Omari in der Bergregion oberhalb der strategisch wichtigen Bab al-Mandab – jener Meerenge, die das Tor zum Roten Meer bildet.
Die Koalition hat zwei ballistische Raketen der Huthi-Milizen abgefangen und auch Ziele in der Hauptstadt Sanaa bombardiert. Al-Dhabab, 30 Kilometer vom Bab al-Mandab entfernt, ist nun wieder unter Kontrolle der Kräfte, die loyal zu Präsident Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi stehen. Ihr nächstes Ziel ist der Hafen von al-Mukha und dann die Großstadt al-Hudayda, eine Region, wo die schiitischen Huthis noch einen langen Küstenstreifen kontrollieren. Die Kämpfe der letzten Tage haben mehrere Dutzend Tote gefordert – von Astrid Frefel
http://derstandard.at/2000050490190/Neue-Offensive-gegen-Huthi-Rebellen-im-Jemen
Bemerkung: Die Gegenseite bestreitet die Erfolge der Hadi-Kräfte, s. übernächsten Artikel:
11.1.2017 – AP (A K)
Dozens Killed as Fighting Rages at Yemen's Red Sea Strait
Heavy fighting continued to rage Wednesday near the strategic Red Sea strait of Bab al-Mandab in western Yemen, leaving dozens dead and wounded, security officials said.
Since Monday, fighters aligned with Yemen's internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have been making advances and seizing more territory from Yemen's Houthi rebels, the officials said. Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition provided air cover for Hadi's forces, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media – by Ahmed Al-Haj
The other side denies pro-Saudi victories. See below.
11.1.2017 – AWD News (* A K PH)
250 killed; heavy casualties to Saudis in Yemen within 2 days
Yemeni army forces and the popular committees have undermined dozens of Saudi invaders including the commander of the Third Brigade and other commanders counter Saudi forces advance to Kabob and Zbab in the Bab el-Mandeb.
Saudi invaders and their mercenaries has been defeated strongly in the Bab el-Mandeb by Yemeni army and the popular committees after fierce clashes in Zbab and Kabob’s fronts.
The advance of aggressive forces took place coinciding with Halle range marine with the support of the Saudi Air Force. Yemeni army and the popular committees could deal with the Saudis advancing. They could also destroy 15 military vehicles and UAE’s tanks and a bulldozer belonging to the mercenaries in artillery attacks to Al-hariga in Zbab.
Circles affiliated to “Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi”, Yemen’s fugitive and resigned president, and mercenaries reported their 23 military vehicles were destroyed in recent clashes in the Bab el-Mandeb.
Despite the fact that a military source reported destruction of more than 30 Saudi military vehicles.
Yemeni army and the popular committees prevented another attack of Saudi aggressor forces to al-Gharon al-Khamsah in Kabob. As a result, dozens of mercenary forces were killed or injured.
The military source reported more than 250 of mercenaries were killed and more than 400 of them were injured during conflict in Zbab and parts of Kabob in Taiz fronts within two days.
The clashes led to the killing of dozens mercenaries including Omar al-Sabihi, the commander of the Third Brigade, and Sameh Haider, the fourth battalion commander of the Brigade. According to informed sources, ambulances were dispatched to the clashes field for transferring the bodies and injured. State of alert was declared in hospitals in Aden.
http://awdnews.com/political/250-killed-heavy-casualties-to-saudis-in-yemen-within-2-days
11.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Targeting Mercenaries in Taiz and Khpop
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60595&lang=en
10.1.2017 – Yemen Press (A K PH)
Saudi military consequences as Yemen achieves victories
The Yemen military achievements in the various fronts, confirm that the army and people's committees have benefited a lot from the war, as they have re-arranged their ranks to commensurate with the nature of the battle, something depicts that Yemen is one which benefited not the enemy.
Information indicates that there are no mercenary’s victories except the failures, in the recent clashes in the fronts of Nehim and in the two districts of Asilan and Bayhan in Shabwa as well as the recent clashes in the coastal of Dhubaab in province of Taiz, revealed the fragility of the mercenaries and Saudi American aggression.
The aggression operation aimed to achieve progress which was accompanied by the coverage of the hundreds aggression aircrafts and dozens of raids, along with the number of the tight military position but failed to achieve their goals when they encounter steadfastness of the army and popular committees.
The failures of the Saudi military operations reveal a significant level of their losses and the great collapse on the US Saudi American aggression militarily and politically.
The Yemen military operations have claimed lives of hundreds mercenaries during the past few days, which resulted into the killing of dozens of leaders in the field that staked aggression.
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (* A K PH)
Army repels Saudi-paid mercenaries in Dhubab
The army and popular forces repelled infiltration attempts by Saudi-paid mercenaries to move in many sides in Dhubab area of Taiz governorate, killing dozens, an official told Saba on Tuesday.
The operations took place throughout Monday, from early morning till evening, as the mercenaries were covered by US-Backed Saudi aggression warplanes and warships.
Over 30 airstrikes were carried out by the enemy to back their failed mercenaries' attempts.
It was the third straight day of botched mercenaries' attempts in the area.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452348.htm and by Yamanyoon: http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60433&lang=en
My comment: The Sanaa government claims to have repelled the attack , while the Saudi / Hadi side claims victories (see below).
9.1.2017 – AFP (* A K PS)
New Yemen offensive looks to break deadlock
Yemeni pro-government forces have launched a major offensive to push Shiite rebels from coastal areas, in a move analysts say aims to end a military stalemate and jumpstart political talks.
But the forces loyal to President resident Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi -- who are backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- are facing divisions within their ranks that are hampering their efforts.
Supported by coalition air and sea support, loyalist forces launched operation "Golden Spear" on Saturday in Yemen's western Dhubab district, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The goal is to drive Huthi rebels from all of Yemen's Red Sea coast, which stretches some 450 kilometres (280 miles).
The latest offensive "is important to reignite the political process," Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi told AFP.
"The Huthis will not accept dialogue" unless they are forced into talks by a "change on the ground," he said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4102344/New-Yemen-offensive-looks-break-deadlock.html
My comment: The statement that the latest offensive "is important to reignite the political process”, as ""The Huthis will not accept dialogue unless they are forced into talks by a change on the ground," is obviously bullshit. How any change on the ground really could “reignite the political process”?? The hadi government always claimed political superiority (or even more, sole role) – thus it only accepts peace talks in which they evidently are given that position by all participants. The Hadi “government” only will attend peace talks from a position of superiority, and they want to gain this superiority by force now. The objection that the Houthis “will not accept dialogue" is special bullshit. The Houthis always had declared their acceptance of the last UN peace plan, the Hadi “government” had rejected it, thus not accepting dialogue. The problem of the Hadi government is that the Houthis would not accept a dialogue on the base of Hadi’s conditions.
Comment by Hussam Al-Sanabani: Saudi mercenaries fabricated propaganda is no longer trusted. Truth can not be hidden in #Yemen
https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/818511812643667969
9.1.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A K PS)
Yemen Army Fortifying Western Coastal Advances, Cutting Insurgency Supply Routes
Pro-government forces in Yemen, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, continued recording sweeping advances in Taiz freeing militia-held pockets for two days in a row.
The operation sweeping the zone is denoted by “Operation Golden Spear”, and presents great significance as it frees coastal areas vital to economic pipelines from the hold of Iran-aligned Houthi groups, seeking to topple governmental authority.
Fierce clashes intensified between pro-government forces, composed of popular resistance groups and army units , and Iran-backed Houthis siding with combatant loyalists supporting former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Advances have been registered throughout western terrain reaching as far as the coastal port city of Taiz, Mocha.
Past 72 hours of continued advances restoring control over key positions, including a mountain Owaid and fort in Aelaidlh South Aloakhlud area, pro-government forces directed efforts to cut off main Hodeidah – Taiz supply routes. Army units then sought to secure the coastline stretching from Dhubab , Mocha through to Bab al-Mandeb strait, cutting off the chief artillery supply route.
The Golden Spear Operation restored stability to an international shipping line which coup militias repeatedly hindered its nautical safety, especially firing multiple attacks against commercial and military vessels.
Multiple casualties have been accounted for among coup ranks, both in artillery and personnel.
Army troops managed abort militia infiltration attempts that were accompanied with violent bombardment across eastern, southern and western fronts, as well as increased fighting in Jabal Habashi, west of Taiz.
Ongoing operations led by Yemen army forces, support by coalition airpower, are invested in the conclusive implementation of Operation Golden Spear, launched to liberate the national west coast, all the way to Mocha and Bab al-Mandeb, military sources reported to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Main supply routes pumping artillery to coup militias will be completely cut, they added.
My comment: Fact or fiction? And the tale of Iranian weapons supply is repeated again and again.
Comment by Judith Brown: A Saudi report of the southwest corner of Yemen. It sounds more credible than the Iranian reports.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155100363603641
9.1.2017 – Middle East Observer (A K PS)
Is Liberation of ‘Dhubab’ a Breakthrough in Yemen War?
“Dhubab” is on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, south of Hodaida, with access to Taiz and has been useful to Al Houthis in their efforts to break the coalition blockade and maintain supplies.
Al Houthis have valued their access to whichever seaports they have been able to occupy so that they can import military supplies and as many essentials as they are able to.
The liberation of Dhubab, the Yemeni port on the Bab Al Mandab straits, seems to be an important breakthrough in the war against Al Houthi rebels who are based in the north of the country but continue to occupy a large part of the rest of the country, according to Gulf News.
In an editorial on Monday, Gulf News said, “The Saudi-led coalition should be justifiably pleased with their success in retaking Dhubab. The military action was conducted by the Yemeni national army, backed by Popular Resistance forces and coalition forces which included a significant number of UAE armed forces.
https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2017/01/09/29023/
9.1.2017 – Al Masirah TV and others (A K PH)
Videos: Saudi Army convoy ambushed in western Yemen
Yemeni military distributed media on Monday, new scenes and the quality of the process inflict mercenaries Saudi American aggression west of heavy losses during the past two days Khpop battles.
A Saudi military convoy was ambushed by Houthi fighters in the Ta’iz Governorate of western Yemen over the weekend.
The convoy was on its way to target the Houthis near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.
Heavy losses were recorded as a result of the ambush.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM-V_vjHzMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ5DpRhaxIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Gn0-0RC0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjIo5ZB9e68
http://defense-watch.com/2017/01/09/video-saudi-army-convoy-ambushed-in-western-yemen/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HT3YBCbr6s (by Yemen Today TV)
My comment: That’s from the other side.
9.1.2017 – Press TV Iran (A K PH)
Film: Saudi-backed mercenaries defeated by army in Yemen's west
Yemeni army and popular committees have inflicted heavy casualties on the Saudi-backed mercenaries over the past few days. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has stepped up its offensive to take control of several areas and ports in Yemen’s west. Press TV’s Mohammad al-Attab is reporting from the Red Sea port of Hudaydah.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/01/09/505520/Saudibacked-mercenaries-defeated-by-army-in-Yemens-west
Comment by Judith Brown: Well each 'side' claims victory. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens next.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155100345423641
9.1.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A K PH)
Saudi & UAE media still claiming victory in Yemen's Bab Al Mandab battles. Beyond ridiculous, but I think their desperation will worsen soon (photos, from film above)
https://twitter.com/bafana3/status/818575300766396416
cp17b Kriegsereignisse: Sonstiges / Theater of War: Other
11.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Confrontations renew, coalition fighters bomb Houthi sites in Taiz
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87942
11.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi-paid mercenaries' military truck destroyed in Serwah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452467.htm
Army thwarts attempt to advance in al-Ghail in Jawf
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452416.htm and http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452555.htm
Army repulses mercenaries' attempt to advance on Thubab
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452472.htm
Army snipers kill 4 Saudi soldiers in Jizan
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452474.htm
Army destroys three Saudi military vehicles in Jizan, Aser, Najran
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452580.htm
Army foils mercenaries' infiltration in Jabal Habashy, Taiz
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452477.htm
Army repulses two attempts to advance in Taiz, Lahj
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452547.htm
Army pounds Saudi-paid mercenaries' gathering in Lahj
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452552.htm
11.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Army and Popular Committees Target Groupings of Mercenaries in Taiz
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60577&lang=en
11.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi enemy's border guards kill citizen in Sa'ada
The Saudi enemy's border guards shot dead a citizen in Al Yazid area in Munabah district of Sa'ada province, a security official said on Wednesday.
At least three citizens from sons of the same district were killed by the Saudi enemy soldiers at the borders during the past few weeks, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452504.htm and http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452543.htm
11.1.2017 – Al Arabiya (A K PS)
Saudi forces carry out operations against militias on Yemen border
The operations were carried out in Najran, Jazan and Alab border crossing in Dhahran Al-Janoub in Asir.
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online(A K PS)
A child died by a Houthi projectile in al Baidha
A child died on Tuesday in al Baidha governorate, central Yemen, after he was injured in an explosion of a projectile fired by the Houthis and Saleh forces on al Zaher district last week.
A local sources told Almasdaronline that a child called Mohammed al Aaqil was killed and another child Yasser Abdul Rab al Humaiqani was seriously injured on the fifth of this January in Aljbh area in an explosion of remains of a projectile.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87910
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online(A K PS)
The government forces advance northern Saada
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87905
Remark: Here and following: Saudi-backed Hadi forces.
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online(A K PS)
17 Houthis killed in battles with the government forces in Shabwa
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87904
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online(A K PS)
Taiz: government forces attack Houthis and seize new sites
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87903 and https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-%202665
10.1.2017 – Qatar News Agency (A K PS)
17 Houthi Militants and Saleh Rebels Killed in Yemen
Seventeen of the Houthi and the ousted Ali Abdulla Saleh militias were killed in clashes with the Yemeni army and the resistance group, and between the rebellious militias and the revolutionary groups in the North front of Usaylan district in the governorate of Shabwa.
A local source told Yemen news agency that army soldiers were able to defeat the militias attacks. The clashes resulted in the death of 17 members of the militias and the arrest of three others.
The source added that the Arab alliance jets targeted the Houthi and Saleh's militias in AlMutahhar
http://www.qna.org.qa/en-us/News/17011009250021/17-Houthi-Militants-and-Saleh-Rebels-Killed-in-Yemen
My comment: “Saleh rebels” is a strange label, as this is the regular Yemeni army (the larger part of it, which stayed loyal to ex-president Saleh).
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army kills dozens Saudi-paid mercenaries in Taiz
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452336.htm
10.1.2017 – Yamnanyoon (A K PH)
Taiz : Army and Popular committee launched gathering of Mercenary fighters in Shabeibah Plateau in Magbanah district in Taiz province.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60450&lang=en
10.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army kills mercenaries in Nehm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452337.htm
10.1.2017 – Yamnanyoon (A K PH)
Army and popular committees Snipe two of Saudi troops in Al Faredha base in Jizan
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60452&lang=en
10.1.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
clashes ongoing in Makbana and al Wazieyah
http://almasdaronline.com/article/87885
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Senior commander of Saudi-paid mercenaries killed in Bayhan district
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452301.htm
9.1.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army hits Saudi-paid mercenaries in Lahj
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452310.htm and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60316&lang=en
9.1.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Saudi-paid mercenaries targeted a house in Al-Zabairah area in Haifan district,Taiz, injuring four women.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news452314.htm and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=60319&lang=en
9.1.2017 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
#Yemen's NA takes over Al-Amri Military Camp west of #Taiz & the Coalition Navy strikes #Houthi positions in Al-Mokha sea port
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/818464924141817856
Remark: “NA”, national army = Saudi-backed “president” Hadi’s army and militia.
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
11.1.2017 – Judith Brown (A E)
If I've got this story right - Turkish chickens are now being exported via emirates to Yemen. This is terrible. All the time I lived in Yemen people bought fresh chickens from Yemen. But all the chicken farms have been destroyed.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155105152118641 referring to: http://nabdapp.com/jump.php?id=37715183
My comment: certainly only to Southern Yemen. The North is under Saudi starving blockade.
2017 – Samed Socotra
Photos from Socotra island
https://www.facebook.com/Samedsocotra/posts/1833204126953388
https://www.facebook.com/Samedsocotra/posts/1825775757696225
10.1.2017 – Adengad
Hindu temple at Aden, symbol of religious tolerance (photo)
https://twitter.com/adenalghad/status/818795064579260416
9.1.2017 – Akram (A K)
#Saudi coalition forces Threatens to target ship on Hodeidah port
https://twitter.com/akram1_1/status/818161544064184320 referring to https://twitter.com/Hona_Almasirah/status/818159420387524608
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: No fair, they bomb #Yemen-i boats and ports without any warning but warn foreign ships! We demand equal Saudi impunity towards int'l ships
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/818438300927229955
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-251-yemen-war-mosaic-251
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-251: / Yemen War Mosaic 1-251:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm und / and http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
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