Yemen violence kills 944, injures 3,487: WHO

GENEVA: The violence raging in Yemen since late March has killed 944 people and injured 3,487 as of April 17, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The UN health agency said the numbers came from health facilities in Yemen, but the true figures are likely higher since many people are not making it to hospitals for treatment.

Last Friday, the WHO had put the toll at 767 deaths and 2,906 injured in the latest round of violence that began on March 19.

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The WHO toll does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Yemen, strategically located near key shipping routes and bordering oil-rich Saudi Arabia, was plunged into chaos last year when Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels seized the capital Sanaa.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia launched air strikes last month against the rebels, vowing to restore the authority of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Riyadh as the rebels advanced on his southern refuge of Aden.

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On Tuesday, medics in Yemen reported that 38 civilians had been killed and 532 wounded when the coalition struck a missile depot in the Yemeni capital on Monday.

The International Organization for Migration said Tuesday it had temporarily suspended evacuations of foreigners from Yemen because of security hurdles posed by "all parties to the conflict".

Spokesman Joel Millman said the IOM had been forced to suspend the operation that began on April 12 "until further notice" due to "escalating difficulties faced in undertaking flight operations in recent days".

The IOM said it had flown more than 400 foreign nationals out of the war-torn country since April 12.

The organisation had hoped to operate several flights out of the conflict-ravaged country daily, but had only managed three flights since the evacuations began, Millman told reporters

The IOM said the UN Security Council had adopted a resolution calling on all the belligerents in Yemen to help in the evacuation of foreigners but this was not being respected.

Millman said there were still hundreds of thousands of foreigners in the country.

Some 16,000 foreign nationals had turned to IOM alone requesting evacuation.

But Millman pointed out that there are known to be around 250,000 Somalis and 100,000 Ethiopians living in Yemen.

While many of them may not want to be evacuated, the number of foreigners who wish to leave is "potentially a huge population," he said.