Saudi coalition shelling kills African migrants in Yemen 

Artillery fired by the Saudi-led coalition forces yesterday evening hit a gathering of Somali and Ethiopian migrants in the border district of Monabeh in the Houthi-stronghold province of Saada, resulting in ten deaths and 35 injuries.

Yemen Press Agency published preliminary images documenting the scenes of the attack against the African migrants in Al-Raqu market in Monabeh.

In 2017, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates bombed boats carrying displaced people from the Horn of Africa off the coast of Yemen, leaving 45 dead and wounded, according to international media at that time.

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The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that almost 90,000 east Africans, 90 per cent of them Ethiopians, have arrived in Yemen since April. However, human traffickers are increasingly using the country as a route to traffic African migrants to Gulf countries, many have been subjected to sexual abuse.

More than 150,000 people arrived in Yemen in 2018, a 50 per cent increase from the year before.

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