MEP: Twenty prominent Human Rights (HR) groups have urged United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to put Saudi Arabia back on a blacklist for killing and maiming children in Yemen.
According to Reuters News agency report, from New York, “The evidence of grave violations against children in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition is overwhelming,” On Monday, the UN dropped Saudi Arabia from its annual blacklist, for a joint review with Saudi Arabia.
Diplomatic sources on Tuesday stated that Riyadh threatened to cut off aid to the United Nations, meanwhile denying the use of any kind of threat. “If the Saudi-led coalition wants to be removed from the list, it should stop killing and maiming children and bombing schools and hospitals in Yemen, the violations for which it was listed,” the groups wrote in a letter on Wednesday.
The letter was signed by 20 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam, who accused Ban Ki-moon, who will leave office at the end of the current year, of giving in to “political manipulation” by the kingdom.
The UN report released last Thursday that holds Saudi-led coalition responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last Year killing 510 child and 667 injuries by the Saudi aggression in Yemen. More than 9,400 people have been killed and at least 16,000 others injured in Yemen since last March, when Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against the poorest Arab country.
