ADEN, Dec 5 (NNN-SABA) – Sporadic armed attacks intensified in the country’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, despite the United Nations’ repeated calls for de-escalation and protecting civilians.
Earlier in the day, a local medical official said, deaths from Thursday’s shelling, launched by the Houthis against an industrial facility has risen to 10 workers.
On Thursday, a local government source said that a number of artillery and mortar shells, fired indiscriminately by the Houthi rebels landed on an industrial compound in Hodeidah’s southern parts.
He said, the Houthi-fired shells targeted the Thabit Brothers industrial compound, owned by local Yemeni investors, causing serious damage to the facility.
Hours following the attack, the United Nations’ mission in Hodeidah condemned “the reported killing and injury of civilians, as a result of the shelling” in the city, saying that “the killing of civilians must stop.”
The UN mission urged the warring parties to use the mechanisms established in Stockholm two years ago, to maintain the cease-fire and avoid any further suffering to the people.
“The loss of civilian life shows again the futility of the combat in the province of Hodeidah, and demonstrates that humanitarian law must be respected by all parties, to spare civilians from becoming caught in the deadly violence,” the UN mission said in a statement.
The attack against the private industrial compound demonstrates the urgent need to advance demilitarisation on the frontline.
Last Sunday, eight Yemeni civilians were killed, including women and children, when Houthis bombed a residential area south of Hodeidah.
A number of similar shelling attacks occurred during the past weeks on various areas of Hodeidah, causing casualties among local civilians in Hodeidah.
The UN said, a total of 74 civilians were killed or wounded in Hodeidah in Oct, as hostilities escalated.
And in late Nov, five children were among eight civilians killed, in rebel shelling of the government-held district of Durayhmi, on the Red Sea coast.
Yemen’s internationally-recognised government called on the UN to take a firm stance against the Houthis.
Yemen’s Minister of Information, Muammar Iryani, strongly condemned “the heinous terror crime committed by the Houthis against the industrial compound in Hodeidah.
The Yemeni minister called on “the United Nations, the Security Council, the Special Envoy for Yemen and the UN Mission in Hodeidah, to demonstrate a clear and firm position on this heinous crime that’s added to a series of crimes committed by the Houthis.”
The port city of Hodeidah, a vital lifeline for millions facing starvation, has seen a shaky cease-fire between the government and the Houthis, since they reached a UN-sponsored truce in Stockholm in Dec, 2018.
Last week, Head of the United Nations Mission to support the Hodeidah’s Agreement and Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee, Abhijit Guha, called for restraint after a recent upsurge in serious cease-fire violations in the city.
“Now is the time to hold fire and stop a cycle of military escalations that will worsen the dire humanitarian situation on the ground,” he said.
Hodeidah is under the control of the Houthis, while the government forces advanced to the southern and eastern districts.
Both sides have been blaming each other for truce breaches and sporadic military escalation in the city.– NNN-SABA