At Least 15 Killed in Airstrike on Yemeni Province of Al Hudaydah – UN

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At least 15 people have died in an airstrike in the Yemeni province of Al Hudaydah, the office of UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the country said on Sunday.

"At least 15 civilians have been reported killed and 20 others injured when the minibusses they were traveling in yesterday were struck in Jabal Ras District in Hodeidah Governorate," the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the state, Lise Grande, said in the statement.

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Grande said UN agencies in Yemen condemned what she referred to as a "horrific incident" and were rushing to assist those injured.

In addition, the UN humanitarian agency has described the war in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with three-quarters of its population in need of relief assistance and protection.

The office estimates that over 170 people have been killed and at least 1,700 have been injured in the Al Hudaydah region, while more than 425,000 have fled their homes since the start of the Saudi offensive in the area in June 2018.

According to a recent UN report, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes were responsible for most of more than 16,000 civilians killed or injured in the Yemen conflict over the past three years.

Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels for several years. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.

The situation in the war-torn country has deteriorated sharply since June, when the Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive to seize Al Hudaydah, a key port city for humanitarian aid, from the Houthis.