At least 19 people died and were wounded in a shelling attributed to the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition against a detention center located in Sadah, a stronghold of the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, according to information from local government authorities, international organizations and the rebels who control the area.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said this Friday that “there are more than 100 people between dead and wounded, and the balance is increasing.”The bodies of the victims were stored in the morgues of three hospitals in the city of Sadah, close to the border with Saudi Arabia, while rescue and search operations continued at the site of the attack that took place on Thursday night.
The director of Doctors Without Borders told the international press that the city hospital received about 70 dead and 138 injured, and that it no longer had the capacity to serve more people. Two other hospitals in the city were also filled with victims of the attack.
The The attack also brought down the internet throughout the country.
The target of the attack was a two-story building located in the city that served as a detention center for defendants awaiting trial, many of them African immigrants who arrived in Yemen and tried to enter Saudi Arabia illegally.
21123615 Residents of the city previously told EFE that Arab coalition planes carried out three consecutive bombings, but the Riyadh-led alliance has not confirmed this military action. , although it has launched others against the city of Al Hudeida in southwest Yemen.
The Houthi government’s Minister of Health, Taha al Mutawakil, told the TV station “Al Masira” that the bodies recovered so far are 70 and that the wounded add up 70.
He also did an appeal through the broadcaster affiliated to the insurgent movement for international organizations and NGOs to send medical supplies, equipment and an air ambulance to treat and evacuate the wounded.
Al Mutawakil said the Yemeni health system cannot handle this “emergency”, especially in Sadah, noting that hospitals currently do not have the fuel to run all electrical generators.
Hostilities intensified in Yemen after an attack to an airport in the United Arab Emirates that was claimed by the Houthis.
21123615A Sadah province is located in the extreme northwest of Yemen and is one of the main strongholds of Shia rebels; its infrastructure has been severely damaged in the last seven years of conflict, with shortages of supplies in territories controlled by the Houthi.
The Arab coalition that has intervened in Yemen since March 2015, in addition to carrying out bombing campaigns, imposes a blockade of the country, controlling the goods that enter by sea, land and air, alleging that the Houthis receive weapons from their ally, Iran.