War costs Yemen $14bn in damage and economic losses: Report

A confidential report says Yemen’s war has cost it over $14 billion in damage to infrastructure and economic losses as Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with its deadly military campaign against its neighbor.

“The conflict has so far resulted in damage costs (still partial and incomplete) of almost $7 billion and economic losses (in nominal terms) of over $7.3 billion in relation to production and service delivery,” Reuters quoted the May 6 joint report by the World Bank, the United Nations, the Islamic Development Bank and the European Union.

The Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment report is an internal working document that is not being publicly released. The assessment was conducted between late 2015 and early this year.

The report said that since the conflict is still ongoing the “preliminary findings are not only partial, but also evolving.”

The report calls for immediate attention to restoring import financing, including food and fuel.

It also says the public health system in Yemen’s third-largest city of Ta’izz, which has been under heavy Saudi bombardment in the past months, has nearly collapsed, with half of the public hospitals damaged or inaccessible.

“There has been a surge in civilian morbidity and mortality as an indirect consequence of the conflict,” the report said.

Saudi Arabia started the military campaign against its southern neighbor in March 2015. The war was launched in a bid to undermine the Ansarullah movement and to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has stepped down as Yemen’s president but is now seeking to grab power by force.

Nearly 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the military aggression.

Fresh Saudi attacks

Meanwhile, Saudi warplanes conducted fresh airstrikes on Huth district in the Yemeni northwestern Amran Province on Wednesday, killing one civilian and injuring several others.

Saudi fighter jets also launched several air raids on areas in al-Jawf and Hajjah provinces as well as several military bases in Sada’a Province. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Yemeni forces, backed by popular committees loyal to the Ansarullah movement, retaliated with rocket attacks against a gathering of Saudi mercenaries in Jawf.

Riyadh’s military does not even spare hospitals and schools in its attacks.

On Tuesday, the United Nations expressed concern about Saudi aerial assaults against Yemen after the regime bombed a hospital in the impoverished country’s northwestern province of Hajjah.

According to UN, the conflict in Yemen has damaged or demolished more than 70 health centers, including three facilities supported by the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders.