Mercy Corps Statement on Yemen Attacks: 'Who is Going to Speak Up for the Innocent Children?'

Media are reporting that a coalition airstrike has struck a school bus and market in Saada province. The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed that an ICRC-supported hospital received many dead and wounded after the attack.

Commenting on the reports, Omer Omer, Mercy Corps' acting Country Director in Yemen said:

"It is hard to imagine this conflict could become any more depraved, but today we have been proved wrong.

"What scale of atrocity needs to occur before the international community will take action? Hospitals being bombed, children being attacked on their way to school- these are breaches of humanitarian law and we must call them out for what they are: war crimes.

"The international community must be unanimous in its condemnation of this heinous and deplorable attack. For too long it has turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Yemeni people and this cannot be allowed to continue. We have to ask, who is going to speak up for the innocent children who died today."