SANAA: The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Works, UAE Red Crescent Society and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Foundation for Humanitarian Assistance have sent urgent humanitarian assistance to the people of Socotra, which took the brunt of the cyclone “Chapala.”
Humanitarian workers coordinated an airlift of relief supplies, including foodstuff, medicines, blankets and clothing, to people in the provinces of Al-Mahra, Hadramout, Shaboua and the eastern part of the Socotra archipelago.
The King Salman center initiated humanitarian assistance efforts following a warning by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization about the movement of the hurricane toward Oman and Yemen.
The center has been working in coordination with the legitimate Yemeni government and global relief organizations in the war-torn country to deal with any urgent humanitarian cases.
The cyclone made landfall on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast on Tuesday, flooding the country’s fifth-largest city Mukalla and sending thousands of people fleeing for shelter.
In Mukalla, whose 300,000 people are largely ruled by Al-Qaeda fighters since the army withdrew in April, water submerged cars on city streets and caused dozens of families to flee to a hospital for fear of rock slides.
Residents said the seafront promenade and many homes had been destroyed by the cyclone and officials in the dry hinterland province of Shabwa said about 6,000 people had moved to higher ground.
In a statement to a local paper, Minister of Fisheries and member of the central operations room at the Yemeni government, set up to face the effects of Chapala, Fahad Kafayen, said the cyclone hit Socotra around 10 a.m. on Sunday and continued until 1 a.m. on Monday, affecting 60 percent of the land in Socotra and causing an interruption of communications between the operations room and areas on the island.
He said efforts were under way to communicate with the authorities concerned in the affected territories.
“We have not yet received information about any casualties, but 3,000 families have been displaced, comprising about 20,000 people. There has been significant damage to homes, livestock, trees and stretches of agricultural land,” he said, noting that the operations room has sent an initial amount of $100,000 for transfer and food expenses.
According to President of the Supervisory and Popular Support Committee at the operations room in Hadramout, Salem bin Al-Sheikh Abu Bakr, the cyclone caused abnormally high sea levels, in turn affecting cities on the coast of Hadramout, particularly Al-Raida and Qasaer.
![]()
KSA, UAE send urgent assistance to Socotra
KSA, UAE send urgent assistance to Socotra
Sudan’s RSF targeted civilians with disabilities in El-Fasher: HRW
KHARTOUM: Sudanese paramilitary forces killed, abused and targeted people with disabilities during and after their takeover of El-Fasher, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, calling it the first time it had documented abuse of “this type and scale.”
The Rapid Support Forces, which have been fighting Sudan’s regular army since April 2023, captured the military’s last stronghold in western Darfur in October after an 18-month siege.
Reports later emerged of mass killings, abductions, rape and widespread looting.
Last week, the UN’s independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said the assault on El-Fasher bore “the hallmarks of genocide.”
“Human Rights Watch has documented abuses against people with disabilities in armed conflict around the world for over a decade,” said Emina Cerimovic, the group’s associate disability rights director.
“But this is the first time we have documented this type and scale of targeted abuse.”
HRW interviewed 22 survivors and witnesses from El-Fasher and found that RSF fighters singled out civilians with disabilities as they tried to flee.
“The Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, burdens or expendable,” Cerimovic said.
She added that fighters accused amputees of being injured soldiers and “summarily executed them,” while others were mocked as “insane” or “not being a complete person.”
A 29-year-old nurse said fighters executed a young man with Down syndrome whose sister had carried him on her back.
“After killing her brother, they tied her hands, covered her face and took her away,” said the nurse.
The nurse also described fighters ordering a woman carrying a blind teenage boy on her back to put him down.
“She said ‘he cannot see’,” the nurse said. “They immediately shot him in the head.”
Another witness said he saw fighters kill “more than 10 people,” most with physical disabilities.
Others were beaten, detained for ransom or stripped of essential devices such as wheelchairs and hearing aids, leaving many unable to escape, HRW said.
Conditions in displacement camps also remain dire, with “bathrooms and other facilities... inaccessible” to people with disabilities, witnesses told HRW.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council sanctioned four RSF commanders over atrocities in El-Fasher.
The wider conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 11 million and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The Rapid Support Forces, which have been fighting Sudan’s regular army since April 2023, captured the military’s last stronghold in western Darfur in October after an 18-month siege.
Reports later emerged of mass killings, abductions, rape and widespread looting.
Last week, the UN’s independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said the assault on El-Fasher bore “the hallmarks of genocide.”
“Human Rights Watch has documented abuses against people with disabilities in armed conflict around the world for over a decade,” said Emina Cerimovic, the group’s associate disability rights director.
“But this is the first time we have documented this type and scale of targeted abuse.”
HRW interviewed 22 survivors and witnesses from El-Fasher and found that RSF fighters singled out civilians with disabilities as they tried to flee.
“The Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, burdens or expendable,” Cerimovic said.
She added that fighters accused amputees of being injured soldiers and “summarily executed them,” while others were mocked as “insane” or “not being a complete person.”
A 29-year-old nurse said fighters executed a young man with Down syndrome whose sister had carried him on her back.
“After killing her brother, they tied her hands, covered her face and took her away,” said the nurse.
The nurse also described fighters ordering a woman carrying a blind teenage boy on her back to put him down.
“She said ‘he cannot see’,” the nurse said. “They immediately shot him in the head.”
Another witness said he saw fighters kill “more than 10 people,” most with physical disabilities.
Others were beaten, detained for ransom or stripped of essential devices such as wheelchairs and hearing aids, leaving many unable to escape, HRW said.
Conditions in displacement camps also remain dire, with “bathrooms and other facilities... inaccessible” to people with disabilities, witnesses told HRW.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council sanctioned four RSF commanders over atrocities in El-Fasher.
The wider conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 11 million and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.