TEHRAN (FNA)- The director general of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) announced the Saudi-led military coalition has dropped more than 3 million cluster bombs on Yemen since the beginning of the devastating war in March 2015.
Speaking at a ceremony in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on the occasion of the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Brigadier General Ali Safra said cluster munitions have been collected in 15 provinces and 70 districts, stressing that the Yemenis have detected 15 types of them used in air raids, presstv reported.
Safra explained that there have been 42 cluster bomb casualties across Yemen in the month of March and roughly 220 victims in the Western coastal province of Hudaydah since Saudi-backed mercenaries withdrew from it last November.
He added that as of March 30, 2022, the civilian death toll as a result of the coalition’s use of cluster bombs amounted to 3,921, including 119 children and 39 women, while 2,884 civilians have been wounded, including 257 children and 76 women.
The YEMAC head also lambasted attempts by certain international organizations to underreport the number of cluster bomb victims in Yemen, stating that such ploys are meant to vindicate the Saudi-led coalition and distort facts.
Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states.
The objective was to bring back to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well short of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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