“The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the United States and around the world, clearly signaling the urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians,” said Nadia Dar, Amnesty International USA Director. He said In a statement exactly one year after the Saada bombing.
“Instead, the US administration has systematically weakened and diminished guarantees Offices She continued: “It aims to limit harm to civilians, while at the same time showing a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians at risk due to armed conflicts. Against this background, attacks such as the American attack on a school in Minab in Iran, which resulted in the death of… [155] people, including 120 children, a tragically foreseeable consequence of the failure to implement robust efforts to mitigate civilian harm.
Amnesty concluded last month that the US bombing of the Iranian school “packed with children” on February 28 was a “serious violation of international humanitarian law” and that those responsible “must be held accountable.”
Erika Guevara Rosas – Amnesty International’s Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns – stressed at the time that “the US authorities could and should have known it was a school building. Targeting protected civilian targets, such as a school, is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
In a possible preview of what Iranian families affected by that strike will face, Guevara-Rosas noted on Tuesday that a year after the attack in Yemen, “US officials have failed to hold anyone accountable or even clarify the status or outcome of the investigations they announced a year ago.”
“The families of those killed in the attack on the detention center in Yemen are still deprived of basic information about what happened. [and] She explained that survivors are still suffering without justice for their loved ones, and lack the means to secure a decent living or even obtain appropriate medical treatment.
Amnesty International interviewed more than a dozen survivors identified by pseudonyms, including Araya, a 22-year-old Ethiopian man who suffered a serious arm injury. “If I don’t take a painkiller, I feel hopeless and wish to die. I think about how, at this young age, I can’t even fend for myself and still depend on help from others. The metal rod inside me is so painful and uncomfortable. It drives you crazy,” he said.
Gerata, a 30-year-old Ethiopian man, has a metal bar in one leg, and lost the other in the attack. “I have lost hope and have nothing left to keep me going,” he told Amnesty International. “I came here.” [to Yemen] To work like everyone else to help my family and change my life and their lives for the better… Now people carry me to the toilet.”
“The United States government caused all of this and is a result of it [of the airstrike]He explained: “I can no longer work and support myself. I want them to provide any kind of compensation that will help us in our lives in any way possible.” “Something that will revive my hope.”
Likewise, another Ethiopian man, 32-year-old Abay, said, “I went to Yemen to change my family’s life, but now I have made my family’s life harder than it was before,” due to his leg and hand injuries.
“I feel broken every time I see their faces,” said Abay, who returned to Ethiopia. “You can see the sadness on their faces. I was hoping for a better life, to work and change our lives, but everything turned upside down.”
“The story of these migrants is bleak and heartbreaking,” Guevara-Rosas said. “As they traveled to Yemen in search of better opportunities, they were arrested by the Houthis, deprived of their freedom, and then attacked in a US airstrike. Those who survived have been left in limbo, with no justice or compensation in sight, no explanation as to why this happened to them, no acknowledgment of the wrong done to them, or any support provided to help them continue their lives.”
“They must receive full, effective and prompt redress, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, through an effective and accessible mechanism,” she said.
according to During the air wars, US forces have killed between 443 and 642 people in Yemen since 2009. The official government estimate of civilian deaths at that time is just 13. The deadline for the Pentagon’s next annual report on civilian casualties is May 1.
Guevara Rosas declared, “In order to stop this deadly spiral, the United States must ensure prompt, transparent, impartial, independent, and effective investigations into attacks that led to civilian casualties, including those that occurred in Yemen and Iran.”
She added: “The US Congress must also urgently strengthen its oversight role and demand answers, including public accountability for these strikes, providing adequate and urgent compensation to civilians who were harmed, and ensuring that funds are not allocated that may contribute to violations of international law.”
So far, both chambers of the Republican-controlled Congress have refused to pass a war powers resolution to rein in President Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran, the invasion of Venezuela, or the bombing of boats allegedly transporting drugs on the high seas. However, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego (Arizona), Tim Kaine (Virginia), and Adam Schiff (California) intend to force a vote Tuesday on a measure aimed at preventing the president’s use of US forces in unauthorized hostilities against Cuba.
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