Human rights organizations in the Marib Governorate declared a report that monitored 1,363 crimes committed by the Houthi militia against civilians and civilian objects in the Marib Governorate as a result of targeting them with missiles and projectiles during the period April 2015 to July 2020.

And the team affiliated with the Yemen Rights Organization for Rights and Development, HOCO Protection Organization, and Shahid Organization for Rights and Development monitored that the Marib Governorate was subjected to 151 attacks launched by the Houthi militia against civilians in Marib during the period between April 2015 and July 2020.

During the press conference held by the three organizations today in the governorate of Marib, the report revealed that the Houthi militia committed 1,363 crimes against civilians and civilian objects in the Marib Governorate as a result of targeting civilians with ballistic missiles, Katyusha rockets, and other projectiles that resulted in killing 340 civilians and injuring 578 civilians, as well as the destruction of 347 private properties and 98 public property.

The report made it clear that the Houthi militia targeted the Marib Governorate with 288 ballistic missiles during the monitoring period, pointing out that 224 of those missiles were intercepted by the Patriot system of the Arab Alliance in the sky of Marib, 64 of them fell on residential neighborhoods resulted in killing 132 people and wounding 127, including 11 women and 12 children.

Through the report, the three organizations made it clear that what was monitored regarding residential neighborhoods in the governorate being subjected to shelling by the Houthi militia, amounted to 495 shells by using Katyusha rockets, 232 of which fell on residential neighborhoods, killing 147 civilians and wounding 340, including 45 women and 82 children.

In their report, these organizations added that the militias targeted civilians with 103 artillery shells, 86 of which fell on residential neighborhoods, killing 45 civilians and wounding 93, including 11 women and 24 children. The report revealed that the Houthi militia used thermal missiles in their attacks on civilians, which resulted in killing 8 of them and wounding 4, including 2 women and 1 child.

The three organizations reported that 370 residential and commercial facilities, 260 educational and other health facilities, mosques and archaeological sites were subjected to shelling by Houthi missiles. During the press conference, the head of the Yemen Rights Organization for Rights and Development, Abdul Hakim al-Qaysi, said that the monitoring team affiliated with the three organizations that issued the report monitored 918 incidents. He added that among those incidents that have been documented and the availability of documents proving the launch of 395 rockets, pointing out that there are rockets that fell on residential neighborhoods caused in killing and wounding civilians, which were not documented due to incomplete documents proving the facts.

He pointed out that 340 died as a result of the fall of those missiles and 578 were wounded.

Al-Qaysi called on the United Nations and international organizations to shoulder their humanitarian and legal responsibilities to protect civilians in the city of Marib, which is home to nearly 2 million displaced people. He stressed that targeting residential neighborhoods and defenseless civilians with ballistic missiles, which are banned internationally to be used in bombing civilians is a crime that everyone must stand at and condemn, in addition to exerting pressure on those militias to stop their attacks against civilians.

For his part, Dr. Ali al-Tam, head of the HOCO Protection Organization, confirmed that the report was subjected to the same attack that the city of Marib was subjected to by targeting civilians by the Houthi militia during the reporting period.

He pointed out that the report sheds light on those crimes, in addition to the destruction of civilian objects subjected to as a result of the systematic bombing by those militias.

He pointed out that the report monitored 370 public and private residential and commercial facilities that were subjected to totally and partially destroyed, including 24 educational facilities, 20 health facilities, 28 mosques and 5 archaeological sites. He emphasized that the statistics included in the report were the ones that the organizations were able to monitor and rely on documents that prove these incidents. He pointed out that there are other attacks and incidents that were not included in the report due to the incomplete documents proving these incidents.

In their report, these three organizations recommended keeping civilians away from the dangers of war, as well as working to protect them and prevent harm from them, and adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law and international conventions regulating war and distinguishing between military and civilian targets.

The organizations called on the Houthi militia to immediately stop targeting residential neighborhoods, popular markets and all civilian objects in the Marib Governorate, and to abide by the rules of international humanitarian law and what is included in the rest of the laws, agreements, treaties and international conventions organizing the war, as this would precisely distinguish between military sites and targets and civilian objects, and set sufficient precautions that keep the population away from any harm resulted from any military actions it takes.

The organizations also called on the National Committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Yemen to go again and again to the Governorate of Marib and to initiate investigations into all incidents of missile and artillery shelling carried out by the Houthi militia against the civilian population and civilian objects from the beginning of the events until the moment and to refer the files of the perpetrators to justice in a manner that guarantees justice for the victims and provide the fair compensation for those affected victims.

The organizations called on the United Nations and its agencies to reconsider their dealings with the human rights reality in Yemen in general and the Marib Governorate in particular and to take a firm stance against all the missile and artillery attacks carried out by the Houthi militia against civilians in Marib, which were ignored in all previous UN reports.

The press conference was attended by the Director-General of the Human Rights Office in Marib, Mr. Abd Rabbo Juday', a number of jurists, activists and those interested in the human rights aspect, and a number of media professionals.