Saudi should be blacklisted over Yemen hospital attacks

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, backed by the UK, must be put on a UN violations list for repeated attacks on medical facilities and violating the rights of children, a new report says. The report , by Save the Children and Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, documents a series of deadly coalition-led attacks on hospitals and medics over the past two years.

More than 160 attacks have been carried out by parties to the conflict throughout Yemen, the report says, including the damaging of medical facilities through airstrikes, occupation and looting of hospitals, and extortion, detention and killing of medical staff. Britain has come under frequent criticism for continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia amid reports of repeated atrocities in Yemen.

 The UK has made more than £3 billion ($3.6 billion) from arms sales since the military campaign began in March 2015, which has seen 11,000 Yemeni civilians killed. The report calls on all parties to the conflict to immediately cease attacks against medical facilities, and for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to add the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to his list of those responsible for grave violations.