[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released a statement [press release] on Thursday denouncing as a violation of the laws of war an airstrike led by the Saudi Arabian coalition that led to the destruction of a humanitarian warehouse in Yemen earlier this month. The attack was said to be executed by the Saudi coalition, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, as a response to the ousting of Former President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi’s [Aljazeera profile] government in January. The attack destroyed an international aid organization’s warehouse, which HRW notes will have far reaching negative effects on the current humanitarian situation in Yemen by diminishing the availability of relief supplies. HRW asserts that the airstrike violated Yemeni laws of war [advocacy website] which prohibit attacks on civilians and civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate attacks not directed at a specific military objective. The coalition has executed many similar attacks in recent months, and HRW has called for independent investigation by members of each country of the coalition on the alleged war crimes committed by those participating. The United States was also implicated in the attack by the released report. Although not an official member of the coalition, HRW believes that the US was providing logistics and intelligence to the Saudi forces in the form of direct targeting support for airstrikes, and asks the US to disclose their role in the operation.

As the crisis in Yemen [BBC backgrounder] inches closer to a civil war, the effect on the Yemeni nationals as well as other countries in the region continue to be affected. Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed his alarm [official profile, JURIST report] over the rising civilian death toll caused by Saudi-led airstrikes. Two days later, the emergency relief coordinator for the Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) also expressed concern [official website, JURIST report] about civilian safety in Yemen after reports surfaced of over 500 deaths and thousands of injuries in under two weeks. The following week,a UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons warned about the massive potential displacement [JURIST report] and humanitarian crisis that could result from civilians fleeing Yemen. Shortly after, Pakistani lawmakers passed a resolution [JURIST report] to remain out of the conflict in Yemen, going against Saudi requests for aid in the form of warships, aircrafts and ground troops. That same day, a lawsuit [JURIST report] was filed against the US State Department [official website] on behalf of all US citizens still in Yemen for allegedly failing to launch an evacuation plan. Last week, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Yemeni combatants to report [JURIST report] attacks resulting in civilian casualties so that they may be properly investigated under human rights law, while HRW condemned the targeting of a hospital in Yemen by pro-government forces.