UN child rights watchdog calls on Saudi Arabia to halt Yemen airstrikes

A UN human rights watchdog called on Saudi Arabia to halt its deadly airstrikes against civilian targets in Yemen and to prosecute officials responsible for child casualties due to unlawful attacks, Reuters reported on Thursday. The censure by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child coincided with international concern at the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh’s military role in Yemen, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi Arabia told the child rights panel last week that it was working hard to correct mistaken targeting by its military alliance. The panel of 18 independent experts took note of the Saudi statement but said that Yemeni children continue to be killed, maimed and orphaned. At least 1,248 children have been killed and nearly the same number injured in airstrikes since March 2015, including dozens killed in a strike on a school bus in Saada province in August, it said.