Section 1: Airstrikes
In 2018, Mwatana documented at least 150 airstrikes against civilians or civilian objects conducted by the Saudi/UAE-led Coalition in 11 governorates in Yemen. These governorates included Hajjah, Sa’ada, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, The Capital Secretariat (Sana’a), Al Bayda, Taizz, Amran, Ibb, Sana’a governorate and Lahj. The attacks killed at least 375 civilians, including 165 children and 50 women, and wounded 427 others, including 172 children and 55 women. The attacks damaged private property and critical infrastructure, and struck residential neighborhoods, villages, roads, markets, service-providing and other commercial facilities, boats, and civilian vehicles.
Many of these attacks appeared to take place far from any potential military targets. In some cases, Mwatana did identify military targets near the site, but the attack caused significant harm to civilians or civilian objects.
Legal Framework
International humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, requires warring parties to minimize harm to civilians during conflict. Warring parties must distinguish between combatants and civilians and between military objects and civilian objects. Civilians and civilian objects are not legitimate targets of attack. A party to a conflict may not use a means or method of combat that is, by its nature, indiscriminate—that is, one that cannot be directed at a specific target or whose effects cannot be constrained by the principles of international humanitarian law. Combatants must consider the possible loss of civilian life and the relative value of the military objective before launching any attack. Although some collateral civilian deaths in an attack directed at a military target are permissible under the laws of war, an attack that disproportionately harms civilians relative to its military advantage is prohibited. Parties to a conflict must also do everything “feasible” to ensure that their targets are military objectives, take all feasible precautions in their choice of means to minimize incidental loss of civilian life, and refrain from attacks expected to cause disproportionate loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects. In addition, warring parties must give the civilian population “effective advance warning” of attacks if circumstances permit. When carried out with criminal intent, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are war crimes.
Case Studies
- On Wednesday, 10 January 2018, at about 3:30 am, Coalition aircraft bombed the home of Ali Ma’idh Al Ghamri in Al Shawmiah village in the Ghamr district of Sa’dah governorate.
The attack killed three children and injured their mother. Khalil Jubran (49 years old), a witness, said: “This is the fourth time that fighter jets targeted civilian homes [in the area], and I am sure that it will not be the last. These three children, Yahya (18 years old), Raja’a (10 years old), and Hana’a (8 years old) are the children of Ali Ma’idh and they were killed while sleeping. This was a horrible day for all of the people of Ghamr.”[1]
On Sunday, 8 April 2018, at about 9:30 pm, Coalition aircraft hit a family gathering outside their home in the Al Mahoul village in the Khidair district of Taizz governorate, killing 12 people, including five children and four women, and severely wounding one person.
Muhammad Sadiq (24 years old), whose relatives were killed, said: “We heard a plane flying overhead, and my father ordered the whole family to leave the house for somewhere far away because he was afraid that the plane would bomb our house. The plane, however, was focused on the terrified and fleeing women and children, and, as soon as they had gathered, the plane unleashed hell on them, leaving their body parts scattered all over the nearby trees.”[2] He added: “We spent the night collecting what was left of my siblings, and the only thing left of their bodies was charred pieces of meat. We could not tell any of the bodies apart. We gathered what remained of them in plastic bags and we buried them all together.”[3] Jamil Abdullah (42 years old), from the area, added: “In this village, we usually carry the dead on our shoulders when we are taking them to burial. This time, we had to carry them on a truck because there were so many of them.”[4]
- On Wednesday, 22 August 2018, at about 12:30 pm, Coalition aircraft fired two bombs at the farm of Muhammad Hasan Al Akwa’ in Bani Hasan, Abs district, in Hajjah governorate, killing four civilians, including three children, and wounding another civilian.
Ali Hasan Al Akwa’ (58 years old), whose relatives were killed, said: “My brother’s children were waiting for lunch, and they were suddenly targeted by a traitorous airstrike. We could not find any part of them after the strike.”[5]
- On Thursday, 30 August about 2018, at 6:30 pm, the Coalition carried out five airstrikes at sea near Aqban Island to the west of Al Khawbah in Al Lihyah district of Al Hudaydah governorate.
Four of the airstrikes targeted four fishing boats belonging to fishermen from Al Khawbah and Al Hudaydah City, while the fifth hit the sea. The airstrikes killed around 7 civilians and wounded 2 others. Seven people who were on the boats at the time of the attack remain missing. The airstrikes completely destroyed the fishing vessels. A 30-year-old fisherman said: “I am psychologically devastated because I am the only one of my colleagues that made it out alive.”[6]
The number of women killed has been updated to 50 to reflect the correct number.
[1] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with Khalil Jubran, 13 February 2018
[2] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with Muhammad Sadiq, 16 April 2018
[3] Ibid.
[4] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with Jamil Abdullah, 16 April 2018
[5] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with Ali Hussein Al Akwa’, 26 August 2018
[6] Mwatana for Human Rights’ interview with one of the survivors, 1 September 2018