Almost 4,800 civilians killed in Yemen conflict: UN

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

Almost, 4,800 civilians have been killed and over 8,000 injured in Yemen’s ongoing conflict, the UN said on Friday.

"The actual death toll is certainly considerably higher. Another 21 million Yemenis -- 82 per cent of the population -- are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," the UN High Commission for Human Rights said.

Sunday will mark two years since the escalation of the current conflict.

"Over the past month alone, 106 civilians have been killed, mostly by air strikes and shelling by Coalition war ships.

"The worst incident occurred near al-Hudaydah on 16 March, when 32 Somali refugees and one Yemeni civilian were killed, with another 10 Somali refugees reportedly missing, feared dead," the UN said.

Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when the Shia Houthi militia group and allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh overran the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated a year later when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a major air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains and shoring up Yemen’s pro-Saudi government.

According to UN, 11.3 percent of Yemen’s population has been forcibly displaced by the conflict.