Day: January 18, 2022

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Around 20 Killed in Deadliest Coalition Strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa since 2019

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi group on the capital Sanaa killed at least 20 people overnight, including civilians, Houthi media and residents said, in one of its deadliest attacks since 2019.

Around 14 people were killed when coalition planes struck the home of a high-ranking Houthi military official, including his wife and son, according to neighbors and a medic.

The air strikes followed Monday’s drone and missile attack on coalition partner the United Arab Emirates that was claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthis and killed three people.

The coalition also said it intercepted eight Houthi drones launched toward Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Early on Tuesday, the coalition said it had begun air strikes against strongholds and camps in Sanaa belonging to the Houthi group, Saudi state media said.

Houthi media named the Houthi military official whose home was struck as Abdullah Qassim al-Junaid, the former head of the Houthis’ aviation college.

The strike killed him, his wife, his 25-year-old son, other family members and other unidentified people, the medical source and residents told Reuters.

On Tuesday men at the aftermath combed through rubble, strewn with belongings, books and twisted metal, as well as debris from heavily damaged neighboring houses.

At the scene Ahmad al-Ahdal said his uncle’s house was hit after the strike on Junaid’s home.

“My uncle went in with rescuers to extract the victims in Junaid’s house,” he said. “We have been unable to find him since then.”

Junaid was among over 170 Houthi officials sentenced to death by firing squad in August by a court in the province of Marib, which remains under the control of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The court found the defendants, most of whom were tried in absentia, guilty of staging a military coup and committing war crimes, state media reported at the time.

Coalition strikes around the city overnight killed a total of about 20 people, the deputy foreign minister for the Houthi administration, which holds much of northern Yemen, said on Twitter.

The UAE armed and trained Yemeni forces that recently joined fighting against the Houthis in Yemen’s energy-producing regions of Shabwa and Marib.

Monday’s Houthi-claimed attack on two sites in Abu Dhabi set off explosions in fuel trucks and ignited a blaze near Abu Dhabi airport.

In response, the UAE said it reserved the right to respond to “terrorist attacks and criminal escalation.”

Source: Voice of America

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Al-Mishri meets members of the Communication Committee of the Constituent Assembly for the Drafting of the Constitution.

Tripoli, The President of the Supreme Council of State, “Khaled Al-Mishri,” stressed the importance of communicating with the Constituent Assembly for the Drafting of the Constitution, as it is a body elected by the Libyan people entrusted with the task of drafting and preparing the draft constitution.

This came during his meeting today, Tuesday, with members of the commission’s communication committee at the council’s headquarters in Tripoli, in the presence of council member and head of the council’s legal committee, “Adel Karmos”, and head of the dialogue committee, “Mohamed Tekala”.

Al-Mishri added that the meeting discussed resolving the legal crisis facing the elections, which the Libyan people hope for, through which they hope to end the transitional stages and achieve the aspirations of the Libyans in building their desired state on a permanent constitutional basis for the country.

The attendees agreed on the need to complete the constitutional process by conducting a referendum on the draft constitution by the Libyan people, according to the Council’s media office.

Source: Libyan News Agency

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UN grants $150 million in aid for 13 underfunded crises – the largest ever so far

UNITED NATIONS, The United Nations is allocating $150 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to support seriously underfunded humanitarian operations in 13 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East.

Topping the list of underfunded crises are Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. These countries will receive between $20- and $25 million each to help them implement life-saving humanitarian operations.

International support for Syria has all but dissipated after more than a decade of conflict. Some 13 million refugees and internally displaced Syrians are living in a state of destitution, with little recourse to basic relief.

The DRC is one of the longest and most complex humanitarian crises. Millions of people are suffering from conflict, displacement, epidemics, and acute hunger.

The United Nations warns the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is deepening, as political instability grows and the country contends with flooding, rising food prices, and disease outbreaks.

Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the distribution of funds made by Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths is the largest ever. He says it beats last year’s $135 million by $15 million.

“This announcement of funding will help the prioritization of life-saving projects to respond to for example food security, nutrition, health, and protection needs. More detailed strategies are expected from these countries later this month,” he said.

Other recipient countries include Myanmar, where the U.N. is providing aid to some three million people suffering from conflict, COVID-19, and a failing economy. U.N. aid also will go to Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger, three countries in Africa’s central Sahel that are struggling with mass displacement because of armed attacks.

Laerke says these countries as well as six others in dire straits in Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, including Haiti and Honduras, will receive between $5- and $12 million each from the U.N. fund to help them tackle their emergency needs.

“These allocations happen twice a year to countries selected because of their low level of funding, the severity of humanitarian needs, and vulnerability,” he said. “These countries have just entered a new cycle of humanitarian fundraising and program implementation on the back of underfunded appeals from last year, all below 50 percent covered at year’s end.”

Humanitarian needs are growing across the world. The United Nations says it expects at least 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2022 and it will require $41 billion to assist the most vulnerable.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest humanitarian appeal. The U.N. recently launched a record $4.5 billion appeals to assist 22 million Afghans, more than half the country’s population.

Source: Nam News Network