In 2022, one child per day a victim of war in Yemen
From 1 January to 15 November, 333 children were affected: of these 92 died and 241 others suffered serious injuries. The direct victims are added to those suffering from hunger, lack of water and medicine. Only the ceasefire in place for six months partially alleviated the suffering. Save the Children: "Listen to the voices of the children".
Sana'a (AsiaNews) - Since the beginning of the year, every day in Yemen a child "has died or been seriously injured" because of the war. The dramatic data on the violence caused by the conflict on minors are contained in the latest report, published by the international NGO Save The Children.
The report reveals that at least 330 children have been killed or injured in 2022. Added t these 'direct' victims are those who have died from lack of food, drinking water, medicine or from diseases that are spreading with increasing incidence.
The figure of dead or injured children, already high, could have been even worse, given that for six months in the country a fragile truce reached by the parties with international mediation and which spared further carnage.
Before the truce, our minds would always be on high alert, imagining that a shell might fall at any second,” said Diana, 14, from Taiz. “We never felt safe. However, during the truce, we felt safe going out and playing as well as going to school and studying. We knew nothing would happen because there is a truce
According to the data contained in the Civil Impact Monitoring Project, prepared by the Yemeni Protection Group and relaunched by the activist NGO, between 1 January and 15 November 2022 there were 333 children affected: of these 92 died and 241 others suffered serious injuries. The extensive use of air strikes, artillery, mortars, landmines and other conflict-related means 'has caused enormous damage to children', the NGO says, resulting in 'deaths, injuries and permanent disabilities for the rest of their lives and the thoughtful destruction of civilian infrastructure'.
Rama Hensraj, Save the Children's director in Yemen, calls on the international community to act to end impunity for heinous crimes, particularly those committed against children. There can be no "justification", he adds, for "death or violence" against children and "the world must act" to stop the escalation of this violence. "We must listen," he concludes, "to the voices of children and work alongside them to enable them to build a better future."
The conflict flared up in 2014 as an internal clash between pro-Tehran Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces; over the months it escalated into open warfare with the intervention of Riyadh in March 2015 at the head of a coalition of Arab nations and has claimed almost 400,000 lives in recent years.
According to the UN, it has caused the 'worst humanitarian crisis in the world', on which the Covid-19 has had 'devastating' effects; millions of people are on the brink of starvation and children - 11,000 dead in the conflict - will suffer the consequences for decades. There are over three million internally displaced persons, most of them living in conditions of extreme misery, hunger and epidemics of various kinds, not least cholera.
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