Yemen air raids exceed rate last year: UN

The number of air strikes on Yemen in the first half of 2017 has already exceeded the total for 12 months last year, according to a UN report released Monday.

Since 2015, Yemen has been the site of a devastating war between the Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebels allied with Iran. 

The country is also regularly targeted by US drone strikes aiming for Al-Qaeda cells that have flourished in the chaos of the conflict. 

The monthly average of air raids on Yemeni provinces for 2017 is almost three times higher than that of last year, according to a report released by the Protection Cluster Yemen.

The cluster is part of the Global Protection Cluster, which is headed by the UN refugee agency UNHCR and coordinates inter-agency aid work within the United Nations. 

The report, which is based on a compilation of UN and open source data, also estimates the number of armed clashes between government forces and the Huthi rebel alliance per month has more than doubled compared with last year. 

While the report does not specify who is behind the air raids, the Saudi-led Arab military coalition allied with the government largely controls Yemen's airspace. 

A spokesperson for the coalition did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. 

More than 8,400 people have been killed and 47,700 wounded since Saudi Arabia and its allies in an Arab military coalition intervened in the Yemen conflict on behalf of the government. 

Yemen also faces a deadly cholera outbreak and stands at the brink of famine.

The United Nations has called Yemen "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world". 

Source: AFP