Airstrikes hit Yemen port

These airstrikes have hit a warehouse and living quarters in the Port of Salif, said Dryad Global. In May 2019, Port Strategy reported that Houthi rebels have pulled out of the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa, however the ports continue to be affected by conflict.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen unleashed dozens of airstrikes against what it called Houthi military targets in the country’s north, including the capital Sanaa and the Port of Salif on the Red Sea coast.

Confirmed hits

The military alliance, which has been at war since 2015 against the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls northern Yemen, said it struck a missile and drone assembly plant in Sanaa.

The United Nations said air strikes also hit the Houthi-controlled Salif grains port, north of Hodeidah, and two projectiles hit a warehouse and the living quarters of a food production company, reported Dryad Global.

“Local authorities and company management stated that six injured workers were transferred to local medical facilities for treatment,” the UN mission in Hodeidah, UNMHA, said in a statement on 22 March.

Port is neutral zone

The Port of Salif is part of a UN-brokered neutral zone on the Red Sea, according to the Stockholm agreement signed in 2018 between Yemen’s warring parties.

The Houthi-controlled ministry of commerce and industry said attacks on the port were part of the “economic warfare against the Yemeni people”.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi that was ousted by the Houthis in 2014.