Oxfam’s statement amended 8 May 2015: Oxfam condemns coalition bombing of a warehouse containing vital humanitarian aid

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Oxfam has vehemently condemned a Coalition airstrike on one of its storage facilities in Saada Governorate in northern Yemen. 

Grace Ommer, Oxfam's country director in Yemen said: "This is an absolute outrage. The contents of the warehouse had no military value. It only contained humanitarian supplies associated with our previous work in Saada, bringing clean water to thousands of households. Thankfully, none of our staff was present at the time, though this conflict as a whole has now claimed more than 1,000 lives, the majority of which are civilians.” 

Oxfam has been working in the northern governorate of Saada for several years, building water networks to bring clean water to 70,000 people in rural communities through the generous support of the European Union and Swiss Government. Before the escalation in violence, 10 million people were without access to clean water across the country. 

Ommer added: "This incident demonstrates again that all Parties to this conflict are adding to an increasingly dire humanitarian situation on the ground. All parties must now find a negotiated peace and allow for humanitarian access.”

PLEASE NOTE: On 19 April 2015 Oxfam issued a statement to media confirming that one of our warehouses in Yemen had been destroyed during the Coalition military action in the country, despite the fact that we had shared co-ordinates of the warehouse with the Coalition. 

Oxfam is now aware that the co-ordinates of the warehouse had not in fact been shared with the Coalition, so we have amended our statement and formally retract the previous version.

Oxfam stands by our condemnation of the destruction of our warehouse. All parties to the conflict have an obligation to obey international humanitarian law and any deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure or indiscriminate attacks must cease immediately.