Marking the seventh anniversary of the Saudi-led war on Yemen, tens of thousands of Yemenis marched in Sana‘a, the capital city, to condemn ongoing Saudi aggression.
There were similar rallies in other cities of Yemen.
To express solidarity with the oppressed people of Yemen, hundreds of people in different cities of Canada also held rallies.
Ottawa, the windy Canadian capital city, as well as Hamilton held rallies.
In Ottawa, hundreds of demonstrators who have travelled from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and other cities marched from Global Affairs Canada (foreign ministry building) to Parliament Hill to remind politicians that they are complicit in Saudi crimes against innocent Yemeni people.
Canada is supplying $15 billion worth of Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia that are being used against the Yemeni people as well as citizens of Saudi Arabia in clear violation of the terms of the agreement.
While claiming to uphold human rights, successive Canadian governments including the current Liberal-led government, have turned a blind eye to egregious Saudi crimes against the Yemeni people.
The Saudis have also imposed a crippling siege of Yemen preventing food and fuel from entering the country.
The UN says that since March 2015 when the Saudis launched the war against Yemen, some 377,000 people have died, a large number of them children.
At least one million children are suffering from cholera, the highest infection of the preventable disease in the world.
Despite Saudi barbarism, the people of Yemen have not been cowed down.
On the occasion of the National Day of Resilience, tens of thousands of people marched in Sana’a on March 26 to reaffirm their steadfastness as the Saudi-led war entered its eighth year.
A day earlier (March 25), the Yemeni revolutionaries hit Saudi oil facilities at Ras Tanura and other cites with missile-armed drones causing massive damage to such facilities.
The Saudi oil storage facilities near Jeddah where the Formula-1 car race practice was taking plac,e caused not only damage but also panic.
The Formula-1 race was postponed.
On March 26 (the anniversary of the Saudi-led war of aggression), Chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat announced a three-day halt to strikes against Saudi forces and facilities.
These included a halt to ground operations as well.
Instead of responding to the offer of a three-day truce, the Saudis launched devastating air strikes against residential areas of Sana‘a on March 27.
A medical centre in the coastal town of Makram on Kamaran Island was attacked in the early hours of Sunday March 27, according to Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network.
The report added that six civilians, including three children, were injured in Saudi airstrikes.
Several other residential neighbourhoods were also bombed.
While the Saudis have on several occasions called for a ceasefire and end to hostilities, when the Ansar-Allah offered a three-day truce that could be extended, the Saudis resorted to their barbaric practices of targeting civilians.
That is why the March 26 rallies in Yemen pledging allegiance to Ansar-Allah and vowing to continue the resistance until the aggressors are defeated was so important.
Waving Yemeni flags, the participants chanted slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Even as the war enters its eighth year, the Saudis have nothing but humiliation awaiting them.