Thousands of Yemenis have staged a protest rally against the three-year-old Saudi-led war against the impoverished country, vowing to defend their country against Riyadh's war machine.
The demonstrators, carrying banners and Yemeni flags, took to the streets of the capital city of Sana’a on Friday, calling for an end to the devastating Saudi aggression against the Arab nation.
“We will not retreat. We will stand [steadfast] until we expel you from our country,” said one protester.
The crowds, who gathered at Bab al-Yaman Square, also strongly condemned the raping of a Yemeni girl by a Saudi mercenary last week.
On Sunday, a number of NGOs in the country confirmed the rape of the Yemeni girl by a Saudi-led coalition mercenary trooper from Sudan in the Yemeni Red Sea district of Khokah, news of which enraged the Yemenis.
“This [rally] showing of honor and dignity today in Bab al-Yaman confirms that this crime will not pass, because this crime is not a small thing. It is an assault against our dignity, an assault against women,” said Abdul-Rahman Faya, a political activist.
The Saudi aggression was launched in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective administration.
The offensive has, however, achieved neither of its goals despite the spending of billions of petrodollars and the enlisting of Saudi Arabia's regional and Western allies.
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured during the past three years.
The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there was a growing risk of famine and cholera there.