UAE soldier killed fighting with Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
UAE soldier killed fighting with Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
Some 85 Emirati soldiers have died in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has killed over 10,000 people since 2015, the latest death occurring on Thursday.
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A Yemeni soldier walks next to aid supplies on the outskirts of Sanaa. [AFP]
An Emirati soldier has died in Yemen, where the UAE is taking part in a Saudi-led coalition intervention against rebels, the country's armed forces announced on Thursday.
The soldier was named as Zakariya Suleiman al-Zaabi in a statement carried by state news agency WAM, but it did not provide details of the circumstances of his death.
Some 85 Emirati soldiers have been killed since the coalition launched its intervention in support of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the intervention began, including at least 1,564 children, according to UN figures.
Despite the coalition's superior firepower, the rebels and their allies still control the capital Sanaa and much of the northern and central highlands as well as the port of Hodeida.
Last week, the UN warned that 17 million people are on the brink of famine in Yemen, with experts placing blame for the disaster solely on the country's two-year conflict.
Around 2.2 million of the country's children are at risk of acute malnutrition and 462,000 are severely and acutely malnourished (SAM), according to the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Aid agencies have also faced difficulty in reaching those in need due to the ongoing aerial campaign by the Saudi-led Arab coalition in support of Yemen's UN-recognised government.
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