Shelling from Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces hit
an international humanitarian aid office in Yemen on Thursday, killing
five Ethiopian refugees and wounding 10, a local official said. The news
comes amid growing concern about the Saudi-led military offensive's
impact on Yemen’s civilians and infrastructure.
Artillery fire and aerial bombing on Thursday struck the
town of Maydee along Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia in Hajja province,
Reuters reported.
The area is a stronghold of Shiite Houthi militias that Riyadh and its
regional allies have been targeting for several months. The latest
deaths come four days after the conclusion of a five-day humanitarian
ceasefire, which was declared to allow international groups to bring aid
to Yemen.
Earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned
that the chaos in Yemen could prove to be fertile ground for extremist
and
jihadist movements, and facilitate their entry into the country
through Somalia.
“The crisis in Yemen has the potential to further
destabilize the region and open a corridor for jihadist movements
through Somalia,” Ban said, adding that he is “greatly concerned” about
the threat of Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, “and the
security implications of developments in Yemen.”
On Wednesday, Yemen's warring factions agreed to meet for peace talks
next week, where representatives from the Houthis and the exiled
government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi will discuss a path to
ending the conflict.
Yemen’s current turmoil began when the Houthis took control
of the capital city of Sanaa in February, ousting Hadi and forcing him
to flee. The U.N. and the international community have denounced the
coup, calling for Hadi’s internationally recognized administration to be
reinstated.
A three-day conference on Yemen’s political future,
which ended Tuesday, called for a major decentralization of power in
Yemen, and a power-sharing agreement between the central government and
an undecided number of regions in the country. The meeting, which was
attended by several regional powers, but not the Houthis, had called for
the rebel group to withdraw from occupied territories and give up their
weapons.
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