News / Yemen

Yemen condemns Saudi-led coalition’s threats to attack customs point in Bayda

Friday, 31 December 2021 7:22 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 01 January 2022 9:02 AM ]

Yemenis inspect damage following an overnight Saudi on the capital Sanaa on December 24, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

The Yemeni industry and trade ministry has condemned the Saudi-led coalition for threatening to attack al-Suwadiyah customs point in the central province of al-Bayda.

The coalition on Thursday claimed the Ansarullah resistance movement established a customs point in what it called al-Suwadiyah "camp", adding that the Yemeni fighters allegedly used the position to fire two missiles at Saudi-backed militants in Shabwah Province.

In a statement issued on Friday, Yemen’s industry and trade ministry decried the coalition’s allegation and its threats to target the customs point as “a blatant defiance” of international law, noting that they come as part of its “policy to destroy the national economy.”

“Since 2019, the point has been receiving trucks carrying food and various commodities belonging to the private sector’s merchants from different provinces” the statement said, adding that the UN has been informed of the customs point and its coordinates.

The ministry said the targeting of the customs point is a crime against humanity, and urged the United Nations and the international community to exert pressure on the member states of the coalition to prevent any attack on al-Suwadiyah and all other customs points across Yemen, stressing that they are civil facilities that provide services to all the Yemeni people.

Also in the statement, the ministry held the UN and the international community and human rights groups fully responsible for these crimes, noting that the silence encourages the Saudi-led coalition to commit more crimes against the Yemeni people.

Yemen calls on UN Security Council to hold Saudi Arabia, its arms suppliers to account for devastating war

The Yemeni foreign minister calls on the UN Security Council to hold Saudi Arabia and its arms suppliers responsible for the war on the crisis-hit Arab country.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies -- including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015. The war was launched to eliminate Ansarullah and reinstall former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh. The aggression, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but it has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people.

The UN says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger. It says the situation in Yemen amounts to the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories.

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