Saudis violate Yemen's Hudaydah truce 65 times in 24 hours: Media

Yemeni media say Saudi Arabia and its allies have once again breached a ceasefire agreement and violated for 65 times the war-torn country’s airspace above the western coastal province of Hudaydah over the past 24 hours.

The Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing the media bureau of Yemen's Operations Command Center, said on Tuesday that the Saudi-led coalition’s violations included the flight of eight fighter jets and spy planes in the airspace of Hudaydah, 14 breaches of artillery bombardment and 43 rounds of shelling.

The development came a day after the coalition had for 78 times violated a ceasefire agreement in the strategic western province and its warplanes had waged 43 raids on four Yemeni provinces.

The coalition claimed on April 8 that it was halting military strikes in support of the United Nations (UN)’s peace efforts and to avoid the further spread of the new coronavirus in Yemen. However, shortly after the announcement, coalition warplanes struck positions at several Yemeni regions.

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dropped the Saudi-led coalition engaged in an atrocious military campaign against Yemen from a blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in the impoverished country.

The move prompted immediate protests from human rights groups worldwide.

Supported militarily by the United States, Britain, and other Western countries, Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the Ansarullah movement.

The invaders have also enforced an all-out aerial, naval, and land blockade on the impoverished country.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

MG