Int'l Community Must Condemn Riyadh for Using Cluster Bombs in Yemen - NGO

Parties to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions must publicly condemn the Saudi-led coalition’s usage of cluster munitions in Yemen and pressure it to stop the practice, a spokesman for an international civil society campaign told Sputnik Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — Earlier in the day, Human Rights Watch accused the Saudi-led coalition of dropping cluster bombs on a residential area of Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa.

"The Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) strongly condemns the use of cluster munitions in Yemen and urges Saudi Arabia and all members of the coalition to immediately halt the use," Firoz Ali Alizada said, calling on all parties to the Convention, to which Saudi Arabia is not party, to "publicly condemn the continued use of this indiscriminate weapons in Yemen."

According to the CMC spokesman, the Saudi-led coalition has been using cluster munitions in Yemen since April 2015. Using cluster munitions goes against the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the principles established by the International Humanitarian Law.

Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government headed by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Houthi rebels since 2014.

In March 2015, the Saudi-led international coalition started carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions at Hadi’s request.

Since the coalition launched its campaign, several rights groups have documented its use of banned cluster munition in several airstrikes, claiming that the coalition has used cluster munitions in Yemen’s civilian-populated areas, wounding and killing civilians.