Rights groups called on Macron to speak up for rights abuses during his first visit to UAE

A group of rights organisations issued a press release calling on Frensh President Emmanuel Macron to take the opportunity of his first official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to make the voice of Yemeni civilians heard.

The six human rights and humanitarian organisations include Action contre la Faim, Amnesty International, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Médecins du Monde, and Première Urgence Internationale.

For about 1,000 days, the United Arab Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia, have been carrying out an air and ground campaign in Yemen to regain control of the capital, Sanaa, and most of the northern part of the country. The area is under the control of the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdallah Saleh. And for those 1,000 days, Yemeni civilians have been suffering from an unprecedented man-made humanitarian catastrophe, which is a direct consequence of the hidden conflict, the statement said.

Yemen, which was already the poorest Arab country before the conflict, now has the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the press release read.

Since March 2015, the war has killed at least 5,000 civilians, a third of them children, and has injured 8,500, according to the UN human rights office. More than 20 million Yemenis, 80 percent of the population, are dependent on humanitarian aid. Over the last few months, hundreds of thousands of people have suffered from an unprecedented cholera outbreak, exacerbated by the collapse of sanitation and health services.

President Macron, accompanied by the French ministers of foreign affairs and culture, visited the United Arab Emirates for the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Read full press release; http://www.publicnow.com/view/2D2A4397AA032220DD3FB64E1887083B2E0361F8?2...