UN rejects Saudi call to oversee Houthi-controlled Yemeni port

The United Nations has rejected a call by Saudi Arabia and its allies to supervise a Houthi-held Yemeni port, where tens of refugees were killed last week in an aerial attack blamed on Riyadh.

The Saudi call came after more than 40 people lost their lives and dozens of others were injured in an apparent Saudi airstrike that hit a boat carrying Somali refugees near Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Friday.

Riyadh and its allies have denied being behind the air raid despite witness accounts citing an Apache helicopter - which is only used by Saudi Arabia in the war on Yemen - to have attacked the vessel.

Reacting to the call on Monday, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the warring sides in Yemen are responsible for protecting civilian infrastructure and civilians, adding, “These are not obligations they can shift to others.”

Saudi Arabia called for jurisdiction over Hudaydah port to be transferred to the UN while the humanitarian situation in Yemen has dramatically deteriorated amid a Saudi blockade, which has put the impoverished country on the brink of widespread famine.

Last week, the World Food Program (WFP) warned that 60 percent of Yemenis, or 17 million people, were in “crisis” or “emergency” food situations. 

“The humanitarian community delivers assistance in Yemen solely based on needs and not on political considerations, and will continue to do so through all available means,” added Haq.

The United Nations also called on Monday for an inquiry into the attack.

“We call on all parties to the conflict to make proper inquiries to ensure accountability and to prevent this from happening again,” the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, said.

Saudi raids continue unabated

The development comes as Saudi warplanes keep up their strikes against civilian targets across Yemen.

According to Yemen’s al-Masirah television, at least six civilians were injured as a Saudi air raid hit the district of Majz in the province of Sa’ada.

Riyadh also launched rocket and artillery attacks on the areas of al-Sheikh and al-Umar in the Munabbih district of the same province. The residential buildings and farms in the area were struck in the attacks.

A security source told Yemen News Agency that the Saudi jets also pounded the province’s district of Kitaf.

At least 25 Saudi airstrikes also hit several areas across the province of Ta’izz, including the districts of Wazi’iyah and Dhubab as well as Ta’izz International Airport.

In retaliation for the kingdom’s relentless airstrikes, the Yemeni army and allied forces targeted Saudi military men on the kingdom’s soil.

Yemen’s War Media released footage showing a Saudi military vehicle destroyed in the southwestern region of Jizan on Monday after it was attacked by Yemeni forces.

The Yemeni troops ambushed the vehicle near Jizan’s al-Khashal military base, killing all the Saudi military men on board.

The Yemeni forces also fired a medium-range ballistic missile at al-Faisal military base in Jizan. The attack comes a day after fighters of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement released footage of a ballistic missile attack on King Salman Air Base in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Also on Monday, the Yemeni troops targeted military positions in the kingdom’s regions of Najran, Asir and Jizan, killing and injuring a number of Saudi soldiers.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a destructive military campaign against Yemen since March 2015 to reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Houthi movement.

The campaign has seriously damaged the country’s infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from the Saudi war at over 12,000, including many women and children.

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