DUBAI (AFP) – Yemeni military officials claimed Friday that 14 Sudanese troops were killed in a rebel raid near the country’s northwest border with Saudi Arabia.
Sudan is a member of a Saudi-led military coalition that has been assisting Yemen’s internationally recognised government in its fight against Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015.
According to AFP, the troops were slain when the Huthis assaulted coalition installations in Haradh, Hajja province, on Thursday.
Sudan, classified as one of the poorest countries in the world by the UN, has deployed hundreds of soldiers to fight in Yemen, including members of the infamous Janjaweed militia, which is accused of crimes in its own Darfur crisis, which started in 2003.
Sudan’s transitional administration said in late 2019 that the country’s soldier strength in Yemen had been cut from 15,000 to 5,000.
Dozens of Sudanese protested in Khartoum early last year, saying that their relatives had been hired as security guards by a UAE business but were sent to war zones in Libya and Yemen.
Yemen’s conflict, which began in 2014 when Huthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa, has resulted in what the UN deems the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.
Millions of people have been displaced, and more than 80% of the 30 million-strong population requires humanitarian help.
According to a UN Development Programme assessment released last month, the war would have taken 377,000 lives by the end of the year due to both direct and indirect effects.
According to the report, about 60% of fatalities would have been caused by effects such as a shortage of potable water, malnutrition, and disease, implying that combat has directly killed over 150,000 people.