Minister: 500 women killed in Yemen since 2014

Some 500 women have been killed in Yemen since “the Houthi coup against the legitimate government in September 2014”, the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, Ibtihaj Al-Kamal, said on Friday

“The war waged by the Houthis since their coup has killed 500 women and injured more than 1,950 others,” the September.net news site reported the minister as saying.

The Yemeni minister made the remarks on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, which falls on 8 March.

According to the minister, more than three million women of childbearing age are vulnerable to disease because they have not received full health care due to restrictions imposed on the UN and international organisations’ work in Houthi-held areas.

The minister pointed out that 1.1 million pregnant women suffer from malnutrition including 75,000 vulnerable women who may experience complications at childbirth as a result of the restrictions.

READ: Yemen family marries off 3-year-old girl for food 

The Houthis were not immediately available for comment.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled government.

According to UN officials, more than 50,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 per cent of the country’s population has been displaced.