Saudi-led coalition calls for UN supervision of Yemen port

Call follows deadly attack on boat carrying migrants near rebel-held Hodeidah port on March 17, 2017.

The belongings of Somali migrants who were attacked while travelling in a boat off the western coast of Yemen on March 17, 2017. Zahir Mohamed / EPA

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has called for the United Nations to place a strategic port under its supervision after a helicopter attack on a boatload of Somali refugees killed 42 people.

The refugees had departed from the western port city of Hodeidah en route to Sudan when the gunship opened fire on Friday, the United Nations refugee agency said.

The Red Sea port near the Bab Al Mandeb strait is under the control of Yemen’s armed Houthi movement, which has been fighting Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the UAE, for two years.

Both the Arab alliance as a whole and the UAE armed forces have separately denied attacking the refugee boat. A statement from the coalition said transferring Hodeidah port to UN jurisdiction “would facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies to the Yemeni people, while at the same time ending the use of the port for weapons smuggling and people trafficking”.

The perpetrator of the attack remains unknown but Somalia has called for an investigation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said survivors have told of how they came under attack from another boat at around 9pm, even after the crew used lights and shouted to signal that their boat was a civilian vessel.

“Nevertheless, it did not have any effect and a helicopter joined in the attack,” said ICRC spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet.

An official UAE military source on Monday said preliminary investigation showed UAE armed forces had not fired on the Somali refugee boat, and had adhered strictly to rules of engagement which forbid attacks on non-military targets.

The source said the investigations indicate the possibility that the boat was targeted by the Houthi rebel forces operating in the region and stressed the UAE would seek to establish more accurately the details of the “unprovoked” attack and also welcome any independent international investigation into the incident.

The Bab Al Mandeb is a strategic waterway through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily and Hodeidah is part of a broad battlefront between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised Yemeni government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and the rebel Houthi movement, which controls most of northern and western Yemen and has Iranian backing.

The Saudi-led coalition has assisted the Yemeni loyalists since 2015.

The UAE recently provided five rescue vehicles to the Civil Defence Department in Aden as part of its efforts to provide development, security, stability and peace in Yemen.

* Reuters and Wam