YemenEXtra
YemenExtra

42 Somali refugees killed, at least 25 injured in Yemen airstrike

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YemenExtra,19 March,2017
Saudi airstrike has struck a boat in the Red Sea, killing 42 Somali refugees and wounding at least 25 others, according to a United Nations agency and medical official.

The victims were carrying UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) papers, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Many of the wounded lost arms and legs in the strike, the Yemeni medical official told YemenExtra.

he refugees were traveling from Yemen to Sudan when they were attacked by an Apache helicopter.

he IOM’s Yemen chief of mission, Laurent De Boeck, said the agency believes everyone on board were refugees, though it was not immediately clear where they came from in Somalia.

The medical official said the bodies of the dead were being retrieved from the sea and taken to the morgue of a hospital in al-Thawra.

The UNHCR said in a tweet that it was “appalled by this tragic incident, the latest in which civilians continue to disproportionately bear the brunt of conflict in Yemen.”

However, October figures from the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) state that the conflict has claimed the lives of at least 4,125 civilians and left at least 7,207 wounded, with the majority of casualties caused by coalition airstrikes.