1,000 Yemenis killed by Houthi militia in one month: Official

More than 1,000 people have been killed and 5,000 injured by Shiite Houthi militia gunfire over the course of the last month, a Yemeni government minister said on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference in Saudi capital Riyadh, Yemeni Human Rights Minister Ezzeddin al-Asbahi said his government was drawing up a list of those involved in what he described as "Houthi crimes."

"We will take this list to the International Criminal Court (ICC)," he asserted.

A government-appointed relief committee, meanwhile, declared Yemen's Aden, Ad Dali and Taiz provinces "afflicted cities" after they were subject to shelling by Houthi militia forces.

Earlier Monday, a Yemeni NGO said that 3,512 people had been killed in a Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthi militia.

The Freedom House for Anti-Corruption and Defense of Rights and Freedoms said that 492 children and 209 women had been among those killed by the Saudi-led offensive, Yemen's Houthi-run news agency reported.

Yemen has remained in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a popular uprising forced autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down one year later.

One month ago, Saudi Arabia – along with several other Arab states – launched an air campaign against Houthi militia targets in Yemen. The bombing campaign and fierce clashes on the ground have seen massive destruction of infrastructure and homes in capital Sanaa, Aden and other cities.

Riyadh says the strikes are in response to appeals by embattled Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi for help against the Houthi militia, who overran Sanaa late last year before advancing on other provinces. Hadi fled the southern Yemeni capital Aden for Riyadh on 25 March, a day before the bombing campaign began.

'Sedition and sectarianism'

Pro-Saleh forces are allied to the Houthi militia, who in previous years had been their foes during several short wars between 2004 and 2009.

Saudi-led warplanes on Monday launched new air strikes on Houthi militia positions, as the coalition of Arab states vowed to coordinate political and military efforts to restore order in Yemen.

In New York, the UN Security Council went into closed-door consultations on the crisis in Yemen and to hear former envoy Jamal Benomar give a final report.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was to meet his Iranian counterpart, said he would urge Mohammed Javad Zarif to help ease the violence in Yemen, warning the country's future should not be decided by "external parties".

The Saudi government said on Monday the nine Arab countries that make the coalition want to help Yemen "reinstate security and stability, away from any hegemony or foreign meddling that aims to foment sedition and sectarianism".

Thousands stranded to be flown home

Thousands of Yemenis stranded overseas because of the fighting in their homeland will be flown home in coming days, a member of the exiled cabinet said on Monday in the Saudi capital.

Beginning Thursday, two planes will fly daily to the capital Sanaa and a third will go to Sayun, hundreds of kilometres (miles) further east, Minister of Transport Bader Ba-Salama said at a press conference with two of his cabinet colleagues.

They said more than 25,000 Yemenis are stranded around the world because of the fighting in Yemen, which worsened in March when Houthi militia advanced on the southern port city of Aden.

"We hope as soon as possible to bring all these people home," Ba-Salama said, adding that about 500 will return on the planned flights every day.

Asked whether conditions are suitable to return the students, tourists and others who have been stuck overseas, Ba-Salama said: "It is suitable in the majority of the areas but not in Aden... We will not bring the people there."

Other areas of the country "are more peaceful," he said.

Yet the ministers presented data showing that 70 percent of Yemenis are living below the poverty line, 12 million are short of food, and prices of the basic foods that are available have jumped 40-110 percent.

Fighting has destroyed 365,000 homes, said the data.

Gulf foreign ministers to discuss Yemen

Gulf foreign ministers will meet this week with a focus on the war in Yemen, the bloc's chief said Monday.

Thursday's meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh would cover "issues vital to the operations of the Gulf Cooperation Council and developments in the region, including the crisis in Yemen," said GCC secretary general Abdullatif Zayani.

It comes ahead of a leaders' summit on 5 May.

The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All but Oman are part of the coalition that Riyadh assembled last month in support of Yemen's President Hadi.