DUBAI— A missile attack blamed by the government on
Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday targeted a key port used to bring
humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged country.
اضافة اعلان
The Red Sea port of Mokha in southwest Yemen is the
headquarters of government forces in the region.
"Three missiles and Houthi
drones targeted the port of
Mokha near Bab Al-Mandab," a government military official told AFP, adding
that no casualties were reported.
The Bab Al-Mandab strait separates Yemen from Djibouti and
is a key passage for international trade, trafficking and illegal migration.
Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, has been
devastated by a seven-year conflict pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against the
government which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The southwest is vital for the import and delivery of
humanitarian supplies.
Mokha port reopened for business a month ago after
reconstruction and renovation work, the government official said.
Southwest Yemen has been relatively free of such attacks
since the signing in 2018 of the Stockholm Accord on demilitarizing the
strategic port of Hodeida north of Mokha.
Sporadic clashes have taken place in the region, sparking
appeals for calm from the United Nations which has been unable to secure
similar deals elsewhere in Yemen.
Some 80 percent of Yemenis are now dependent on aid, in what
the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The war has displaced
millions of people.
The UN has issued regular warnings that Yemen could see
major famine in 2021, after it raised just $1.7 billion of the $3.85 billion it
says the country needs.
The conflict flared in 2014 when Houthi insurgents seized
the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention to prop up the
government the following year.
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