[JURIST] The fighting in Yemen [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] between Huthi militias and anti-Huthi armed groups has indiscriminately killed and wounded civilians with unlawful airstrikes in civilian neighborhoods, according to a report [materials] issued Tuesday by Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website]. All parties to the conflict have also engaged in ground crossfire in civilian areas, and AI believes that these attacks may amount to war crimes. AI calls for a an independent UN commission to investigate potential war crimes, and also stresses the need for aid as 80% of the Yemeni population is in need of humanitarian assistance. “The utter failure of all parties to the conflict to minimize the risk to civilians during fighting has had truly devastating consequences for civilians,” Donatella Rovera [official Twitter], Senior Crisis Response Advisor at Amnesty International, said. “The gruesome nature of the casualties exposes the true horror and reality of war and the deadly and long-lasting impact of such attacks on civilians.” A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition backs the anti-Huthi groups, who are loyal to exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and fighting the Huthi army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The rapidly deteriorating situation in Yemen has sparked significant international concern. In June the UN arranged for a Yemen peace talk [JURIST report] in Geneva, in which the Yemeni president sent a delegation [UN broadcast]. In April Human Rights Watch condemned the targeting [JURIST report] of the Ibn Khaldun Hospital in Yemen by combatants. Also that month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein urged Yemeni combatants [JURIST report] to report attacks resulting in civilian casualties so that they can be investigated and international human rights law can be upheld. Also in April the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) [advocacy websites] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] on behalf of US citizens still in Yemen against the US State Department and the Department of Defense for allegedly failing to launch an evacuation plan. The same week, in a unanimous vote, Pakistani lawmakers passed a resolution [JURIST report] to stay out of the conflict in Yemen, despite pleas from Saudi Arabia for aid in the form of warships, aircraft and ground troops. Earlier in April, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Chaloka Beyani urged [JURIST report] the international community to prepare itself for the “massive displacement and humanitarian crisis” that could come as a result of civilians fleeing the fighting in Yemen, stating that they must prepare for a worst case scenario.