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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, November 11,2018 7C
Civilian death toll in Yemen rising despite US assurances
HANI MOHAMMED I Associated Press
A child injured in a deadly Saudi-led coalition airstrike rests in a hospital,
Aug. 12, in Saada, Yemen.
BY LEE KEATH
Associated Press
CAIRO — Airstrikes by Saudi
Arabia and its allies in Yemen are
on a pace to kill more civilians than
last year, according to a database
tracking violence in the country,
despite the United States’ repeated
claims the coalition is taking pre
cautions to prevent bloodshed.
The database gives an indication
of the scope of the disaster wreaked
in Yemen by nearly four years of
civil war. At least 57,538 people —
civilians and combatants — have
been killed since the beginning of
2016, according to the data assem
bled by the Armed Conflict Loca
tion & Event Data Project, ACLED.
That doesn’t include the first
nine months of the war, in 2015,
which the group is still analyzing.
Those data are likely to raise the
figure to 70,000 or 80,000, ACLED’s
Yemen researcher Andrea Car-
boni told The Associated Press.
The organization’s count is consid
ered by many international agen
cies to be one of the most credible,
although all caution it is likely an
underestimate because of the dif
ficulties in tracking deaths.
The numbers don’t include those
who have died in the humanitarian
disaster caused by the war, par
ticularly starvation. Though there
are no firm figures, the aid group
Save the Children estimated hun
ger may have killed 50,000 chil
dren in 2017. That was based on a
calculation that around 30 percent
of severely malnourished children
who didn’t receive proper treat
ment likely died.
Renewed uproar over the
destruction has put Washington in
a corner. The U.S. has sold billions
of dollars in weaponry to Saudi
Arabia, backing the fight to stop
Shiite rebels known as Houthis,
who Washington and the coalition
consider a proxy for Iran.
That along with tensions over the
killing of Saudi journalist Jamal
Khashoggi inside the country’s
consulate in Istanbul may be key
factors why Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis and Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo on Oct. 30 made their big
gest push yet for an end to the war,
calling for a ceasefire within 30
days and resumed negotiations.
Only a month earlier, Pompeo
gave a powerful show of support
to the coalition by certifying to
Congress that Saudi Arabia and
its allies were taking measures to
prevent civilian casualties. Cer
tification was a required step in
continuing U.S. aid, which includes
providing intelligence used in tar
geting and mid-air refueling for
coalition planes.
But deaths from the coalition
campaign show no sign of slowing.
Coalition airstrikes killed at least
4,489 civilians since the beginning
of 2016 — nearly three-quarters of
all known civilian deaths, according
to ACLED figures.
As of Nov. 3, at least 1,254 civil
ians were killed by the coalition this
year. In comparison, 1,386 civilians
died in strikes the previous year.
Asked about the finding, the
U.S. State Department said in an
emailed reply, “Throughout this
conflict, the United States has
urged all parties to abide by the
Law of Armed Conflict, work to
prevent harm to civilians and civil
ian infrastructure, and thoroughly
investigate and ensure account
ability for any violations.”
Bloodshed has surged from
fierce fighting at the Red Sea port
city of Hodeida, which coalition
forces have been trying to retake
from the Houthis since June. Civil
ians have been killed in airstrikes,
Houthi shelling and land mines.
Since June, more than 4,500 peo
ple — including 515 confirmed civil
ians — have been killed in Hodeida,
nearly triple the number from the
first five months of the year.
Aid agencies fear worse is yet to
come. The coalition appears to be
accelerating its assault before any
cease-fire. Its forces have nearly
encircled the city, where tens of
thousands of people are trapped
with thousands of Houthi fighters.
The port is Yemen’s main point of
entry for food and humanitarian
aid, so any cutoff could push mil
lions into starvation.
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