An airstrike on a wedding in northwest Yemen has killed at least 20 people and injured 40 others, according to health officials and aid agencies.
Rescue teams said 20 people were killed in the Sunday, April 22 strike on a wedding party in the village of Bani Qais in Hajjah province, AFP reported. Provincial health chief Khaled al-Nadhri said most of those killed were women and children, the Associated Press said.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said early Monday that it had received at least 40 injured patients since the strike.
“Following a series of nighttime air strikes on 22 April in Bani Qays, in Yemen, an MSF-supported hospital in Hajjah, has received 45 wounded individuals,” Nuha Mohammed, a spokesperson for MSF in Yemen, told The Defense Post.
“Among these, at least 13 are children, some arriving to the hospital in critical condition. Hospital staff in Hajjah are working around the clock to treat the wounded. Last night’s airstrikes were among the most devastating in the area in recent months.”
The coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has not commented on the strike, but the area is under control of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the head of al-Jumhouri hospital said 30 children were among the injured. The Houthi’s Al-Masirah TV blamed the coalition for the strike, saying 33 people were killed and 55 others injured.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition joined the Yemen war in March 2015, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Rights groups have warned that both the coalition and rebels are potentially guilty of war crimes. The U.N. last year blacklisted the coalition for the maiming and killing of children.
