A new report from the UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos is warning that civilians are taking a disproportionately large toll in the ongoing violence in Yemen, with 519 civilians killed and 1,700 wounded in just two weeks.
This includes fighting between Houthis and al-Qaeda forces in the southwest, but the largest portion of the toll has come from Saudi airstrikes against the country, which began late last week. Scores have been killed in several different incidents of airstrikes by the Saudis.
Amos went on to caution that the fighting had already displaced tens of thousands of civilians, a particular problem with the lack of access to humanitarian aid since the Saudi war began. They’ve been blocking Red Cross aid shipments.
The poorest country in the Middle East, much of Yemen has been suffering under on-again, off-again conflicts over the past several years already, and the latest escalations of violence, along with an imminent Saudi invasion, look to push the matter far beyond what they have previously experienced.