page_title: Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
section_title: Infrastructure damage and humanitarian situation
hierarchical_section_title: Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen / Infrastructure damage and humanitarian situation
caption_attribution_description: English: After over one thousand days into the Saudi bombing of Yemen, which is almost entirely UK/US equipped and supported, the first large protest takes place in London of a few hundred people outside Downing Street.
context_page_description: The Saudi-led intervention in Yemen is an intervention launched by Saudi Arabia on 26 March 2015, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, in response to calls from the pro-Saudi president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement due to economic and political grievances, and fled to Saudi Arabia.
  Code-named Operation Decisive Storm, the intervention initially consisted of a bombing campaign on Houthi rebels and later a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces into Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition has attacked the positions of the Houthi militia, and loyalists of the former President of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, allegedly supported by Iran.
  Fighter jets and ground forces from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Academi took part in the operation. Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia made their airspace, territorial waters, and military bases available to the coalition. The United States provided intelligence and logistical support, including aerial refueling and search-and-rescue for downed coalition pilots.
context_section_description: In February 2016, the UN Security Council noted that in terms of "numbers of people in need" the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was "the largest in the world". In August 2015, the head of the International Red Cross said, "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years."
  The U.N. human rights office reported more than 8,100 civilians were killed or wounded between 26 March and the end of 2015, the vast majority from airstrikes by Saudi-led coalition forces.
  At the beginning of May 2015, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said, that there had been "severe destruction of civilian infrastructure, including houses, in many districts" since 26 March. Severe damage caused by attacks on Yemen's essential civilian infrastructure such as airports in Sanaʽa and Hodeida by the Saudi-led military coalition was obstructing the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance and movement of humanitarian personnel according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
  In the first weeks since 26 March massive destruction of civilian infrastructure particularly happened in Aden and Sa'da, according to OHCHR.
  In August 2015, air attacks of the Saudi-led coalition on port facilities at Al-Hudaydah "in clear contravention of international humanitarian law", said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien.
  In mid-February 2016, Stephen O'Brien said the situation in Yemen was a "humanitarian catastrophe", with 21 million people in need of some kind of aid, 7.6 million people "severely food-insecure", and over 3.4 million children out of school. O'Brien noted the situation had not been helped by the diversion of an aid vessel by coalition forces.
  According to Lamya Khalidi, an archaeologist: At least sixty of Yemen's monuments have been damaged or destroyed in the bombing campaign by Saudi-led coalition in March 2015. Among these monuments are unique archaeological monuments, old cities, museums, mosques, churches and tombs.
caption: Protest outside 10 Downing Street against a visit by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, London, March 2018
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