News - Yemen: Human rights organizations denounced the horrific massacre committed by the Saudi mercenaries of the Reform Party, in the occupied areas of Taiz.

The Yemeni Center for Human Rights expressed its strong condemnation of the atrocious crime committed by this gang, who deliberately carried out an artillery bombardment targeting children playing in the residential area of Al-Hashma in Al-Ta'iziyah District. The attack resulted in the killing of five children.

The Center pointed out that medical reports from Al-Rifai Hospital in the Sofitel area confirmed that the victims arrived as lifeless bodies, suffering from severe injuries caused by direct shelling shrapnel—a scene that reflects a blatant violation of international and humanitarian conventions.

The Center clarified that this crime constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law and a flagrant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees the protection of children in armed conflicts. It emphasized that this crime is part of a series of violations committed by the aggression coalition and its mercenaries over the past ten years. The Center called on the UN Security Council and the United Nations to take responsibility in condemning this crime and previous crimes committed by the aggression coalition and its mercenaries against the Yemeni people.

The Yemeni Center for Human Rights urged local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to break their silence regarding the coalition’s crimes, which amount to complicity, and to take a stance in condemning this crime. It stressed that the blood of Taiz’s children, spilled on the streets of Al-Arusum, is not just a passing statistic but a stain on the conscience of humanity. The Center appealed to the world to take urgent action to stop the brutality of the mercenaries, who are turning residential areas into mass graves for children.

For its part, the Nidaa Al-Karama Center for Rights and Development condemned the crime committed by the Reform Party militias, backed by the aggression coalition against Yemen, in which children were killed in the Al-Arusum area of Al-Ta'iziyah District in Taiz Governorate on Friday evening.

The Center stated in an issued statement that residents of Al-Hashma—a densely populated neighborhood—were shocked by the sudden artillery shelling on their area without any warning, with no clear reason why the Reform Party gangs fired shells randomly. This confirms their disregard for civilian lives and indifference to the consequences.

It called on all human rights organizations to condemn this crime, which led to the martyrdom of five children and the injury of others, whose names and photos have been documented. The children were playing safely when they were targeted. The Center stressed the necessity of punishing and holding accountable those responsible for this crime, which violates human rights laws and child protection laws.

The Center considered silence over this crime as complicity and another crime that only encourages these gangs to commit more atrocities against children, women, and civilians.

Taiz and other occupied provinces suffer from a state of security chaos and have become a scene of murders, kidnappings, and torture of civilians. Violations and crimes are exacerbated in the areas under the control of the US-Saudi aggression and mercenaries, with the complicity of the security authorities there, which have reached the point of deliberately targeting civilians with killing and threats.

What is happening in occupied provinces constitutes war crimes and flagrant violations of international human rights law, human rights organizations have not taken action against these violations.