Groups: Both sides used starvation as tool in Yemen war

Two human rights groups have accused both sides in the Yemen conflict of using starvation as a weapon of war

CAIRO -- Two human rights groups Wednesday accused both sides in Yemen's conflict of using starvation as a tactic of war. They urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the opposing participants to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged crimes. In a sweeping 275-page report, the Yemen-based Mwatana Organization for Human Rights and another group, Global Rights Compliance, said they documented airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition that hit farms, water facilities and small fishing boats during fighting with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The report also documented the Houthis' restrictions on humanitarian activities, which deprived civilians in areas under their control of “indispensable aid, including food.” It also documented the rebels’ widespread and indiscriminate use of land mines, which have killed and maimed shepherds and their livestock and prevented farmers from accessing agricultural land, according to the report. The civil war in Yemen erupted in 2014, when the Houthis swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile. The following year, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states formed a coalition and entered the war on the side of Hadi’s government.