EU foreign policy chief, Federica MogheriniBrussels(ANN)EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has warned about the alarming impact of the ongoing Saudi attacks on the civilian population in Yemen.

“The impact on the civilian population, in particular on children, of the ongoing fighting between different militias, bombardments and disruption of essential services is reaching alarming proportions,” Mogherini and EU humanitarian aid commissioner, Christos Stylianides, said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The statement referred to the airstrike on the al-Marzaq refugee camp in the northern province of Hajjah, where at least 29 civilians were killed on Monday.

“The airstrike on the Al-Marzaq camp in Hajjah, mostly hosting displaced persons, killed and wounded a high number of civilians,” the statement read, adding, “The attacks on hospitals and medical facilities… as well as the deliberate targeting and destruction of private homes, education facilities and basic infrastructure cannot be tolerated.”
It also urged all warring sides to protect civilians and avoid targeting infrastructures. “We call on all sides to give unrestricted access to humanitarians, so that they can keep delivering vital assistance to the most vulnerable people.”

The statement further noted that the EU will support efforts to resolve the crisis in Yemen through negotiations with the participation of all parties involved.

“The EU will continue to support all efforts to bring the Yemeni parties back to the negotiating table, on the basis of broad and inclusive participation, without preconditions and with the clear objective to reach a sustainable political compromise.” reporter Iranian  Presstv.

An explosion at a dairy factory in Yemen’s Hodaida port killed at least 25 workers, medical sources said, with conflicting accounts attributing the blast to an air strike by a Saudi-led alliance or to a rocket landing from a nearby army base.

The incident would appear to be one of the biggest cases of civilian deaths since a Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign against Houthi militia on March 26.

The 26September website of Yemen’s factionalized army, which mostly sides with the Houthis, said 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded at the dairy and oils factory “during the aggressive air strikes which targeted the two factories last night.”

Medical sources in the city said 25 workers at the plant had been killed at the factory, which was located near an army camp loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally.

Residents and witnesses contacted by Reuters said the air strikes had targeted the factory shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Others said rockets fired from the base – possibly as retaliation against the bombings – hit the factory.

The operation by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim states aims to prevent the Houthis and former Saleh from winning control of the country. They instead want to reinstate Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Air strikes overnight hit Houthi positions along the Saudi border in Yemen’s far North, an army bases in the central highlands, air defense infrastructure in the eastern Marib province, and a coast guard position near Hodaida.

After the week-long campaign targeting Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh, the coalition has failed to secure Hadi’s control over his last remaining enclave in the southern port of Aden a key aim of the campaign.

On March 31, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein warned that Yemen “seems to be on the verge of total collapse.”

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen started on March 26 in a bid to restore power to fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

On March 25, the embattled president fled the southern city of Aden — where he had sought to set up a rival power base — to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, after Ansarullah revolutionaries advanced on Aden.

The Ansarullah fighters took control of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, in September 2014 and are currently moving southward. The revolutionaries said the Hadi government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.
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