Sudanese protest UN blacklist of anti-Houthi coalition

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM (AA) – Hundreds of people took to the streets in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday to protest a UN move to blacklist a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen for grave violations against children.

Last week, a draft version of the UN annual report on children in armed conflict blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for killing and injuring 683 children in Yemen in 2016.

The blacklist also included Houthi rebels, Yemeni government forces, pro-government militias and al-Qaeda group for crimes against children.

“This report is unjust, fabricated and biased,” Yassir Mahy Eldeen, head of the Sudanese-Saudi Brotherhood Association, which organized the protest, told demonstrators.

“It turns a blind eye to brazen crimes committed by the Houthis against civilians in Yemen and selectively focuses on the Saudi actions,” he said.

Tawfiq Algabri, a representative of the Yemeni community in Sudan, also decried the UN move.

“The UN should correct this report as it is totally wrong,” he said.

Tuesday’s rally was joined by scores of Saudis and Yemenis living in Sudan as well as dozens of injured Yemeni soldiers being treated in the country.

During the rally, protesters delivered a letter of complaint to the UN representative in Sudan.

The letter decried the UN move to blacklist the coalition as “unfair” and “politicized”, calling on the UN to draw attention to crimes committed by Houthis against civilians in Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition had been briefly added to the blacklist in 2016 and then removed by then-UN chief Ban Ki-moon pending review.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014 when Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa and much of the country, forcing the government to set up an interim capital in the coastal city of Aden.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains in Yemen. Sudan is part of the Saudi-led coalition.

According to UN figures, more than 10,000 people -- including numerous civilians -- have been killed to date as a result of the conflict.