Following Saudi Arabia’s horrific attack on Yemen that killed hundreds and a nationwide Internet blackout, Twitter users outraged at Saudi Arabia’s vandalism with hashtag #Be_Voice_of_Yemeni_people
At least 180 people were killed and more than 300 injured when an airstrike hit a detention center in Yemen on Friday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said, as the Saudi-led coalition continued horrific attack on Yemeni people.
Another airstrike early Friday hit a telecommunications building in the strategic port city of Hodeidah, causing a nationwide internet blackout, according to NetBlocks, an organization that tracks network disruptions. At least three children were killed in that attack, Save the Children said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said the internet blackout, which was still ongoing as of Friday evening, would affect aid delivery.
Yemen blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the strikes.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has intensified its attacks in the wake of a Houthi missile and drone strike in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
A correspondent of Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television in Yemen said 62 bodies had been pulled out from under the rubble.
“The hospitals are full of martyrs and the wounded, and we desperately need medicine and medical equipment,” Sa’ada Governor Mohammed Jaber Awad said. “Many international organizations had previously visited the prison.”
In Hudaydah, at least six civilians were killed and 18 others injured after Saudi jets heavily bombed residential areas early Friday, al-Mayadeen reported.
Saudi warplanes target Yemeni hospital amid increased airstrikes
They struck a communications center in the city some 145 km southwest of the capital Sana’a, provincial health office director Ali al-Ahdal told Yemen’s al-Masirah television. As a result, a three-story building was leveled to the ground.
It released chaotic footage of people digging through rubble for a body as gunshots could be heard. Aid workers assisted bloodied survivors.
Local authorities continued to search for possible survivors and recover the bodies of the victims who were mostly children playing near the building.
A source said incessant overflights by Saudi aircraft are hampering rescue efforts.
Nationwide Internet blackout
The airstrike also plunged Yemen offline as the war-torn nation lost its connection to the internet nationwide, an advocacy group said.
NetBlocks said the disruption began around 1 a.m. local and affected TeleYemen, the state-owned monopoly that controls internet access in the country.
Yemen is “in the midst of a nation-scale internet blackout following airstrike on (a) telecom building,” NetBlocks said, without immediately elaborating.
The San Diego-based Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis and San Francisco-based internet firm CloudFlare also noted a nationwide outage affecting Yemen beginning around the same time.
War Crime
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, reacted to the Saudi airstrikes against residential neighborhoods in Hudaydah, saying they amount to a “war crime” and are “not forgivable.”
استهداف ابناء محافظة الحديدة كما هي العاصمة وبقية المحافظات جرائم حرب ولن تسقط
ونقول لدول العدوان لو كان القصف هو الحل لما استمريتم سبعافي عدوانكم وجرائمكم حتى اليوم
واذا كانت امريكا من تسلحكم وتشارك معكم خسرة بأفغانستان ولم يقدم لها اجرامها انتصار فإنكم في اليمن أخسرباذن الله pic.twitter.com/AO11y7TqRw— محمد علي الحوثي (@Moh_Alhouthi) January 20, 2022
