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Report: UAE-backed forces committing grave abuses in south Yemen

September 3, 2019 at 4:08 pm

Yemeni fighters inspect burnt out vehicles as they take under control the site, reportedly belonging to pro-government troops following air strikes by Emirati forces on Yemen’s interim capital Aden, Yemen on 30 August 2019 [Wail Qubati/Anadolu Agency]

The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council has reportedly killed and injured 300 civilians including women and children in Yemen over the past two weeks, a human rights group has said.

The Amsterdam-based foundation for human rights in the Arab world, Rights Radar, said the atrocities were committed in the southern Yemeni governorates of Aden and Abyan.

Field monitors said Aden had witnessed mass arrests and attacks on civilian homes committed by militants since the STC seized control of the city on 10 August. Abuses included “physical exterminations and executions against the detainees and the wounded persons in hospitals”, Rights Radar said, adding that this amounted to “war crimes”.

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It is believed the pace and ferocity of these abuses have increased significantly following UAE air strikes against Yemeni government forces in Aden and Abyan in August, strengthening the militants’ attempts to consolidate control over the governorates.

Aden, the de-facto capital of the internationally-recognised government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, has been the site of increasing tensions between UAE-backed forces and those of the Saudi-led coalition, which the Emirates is a member of.

The separatists seek to re-establish an independent state of South Yemen.