UN: Saudi air raids in Yemen kill or maim six children every day
According to the UN, the war has taken on "terrifying" proportions for the youngest. A third of the more than 3 thousand victims are under 18. In a year 10 thousand children have died due to lack of vaccines and cures. A further 320 thousand suffer severe malnutrition. They are also denied education, 1600 schools closed and 50 more have been targeted in attacks. 848 cases of children involved in the conflict.
Sanaa (AsiaNews / Agencies) – At least six children have been killed or maimed by bombings since the start of Saudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen in March last year. This is according to the United Nations which warns that the conflict is taking on "terrifying" proportions for the youngest. In a report published in recent days, UNICEF – the UN agency for children - said that about a third of the more than 3 thousand civilians killed in the Arab country are children.
Julien Harneis, UNICEF representative in Yemen, said that "children are not safe anywhere in Yemen," and that even "play or sleep has become dangerous". Last year at least 10 thousand children under the age of five died from easily preventable diseases, due to the exhaustion of the vaccines and the lack of adequate medical care.
Last week there were some (tentative) hopes for a breakthrough in the conflict, when the fighting fronts agreed to a ceasefire ahead of peace talks scheduled for April 18. Many hoped in the truce would stop the escalation of a war that has devastated a nation that was already among the poorest in the world.
According to UN estimates, 82% of the population is in "desperate" need of humanitarian aid, with at least 320 thousand children considered "severely malnourished". The scale of the suffering, they add, has reached "shocking" levels. In addition, basic services and infrastructure are "on the brink of total collapse." Last year at least 63 health facilities were targeted in attacks and three were occupied for military purposes.
Often children cannot attend schools, which were targeted in "direct attacks" on 50 occasions; a further 50 have been occupied by fighters. About 1,600 schools are closed for security reasons or because damaged; while others still are being used to house a portion of the 2.4 million internally displaced by the conflict. Finally, there were 848 reported cases of children involved in the conflict, some of which were under 10 years of age.
Since January 2015, Yemen has been the scene of a bloody civil war pitting the country’s Sunni leadership, backed by Saudi Arabia, against Shia Houthi rebels, close to Iran.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels in an attempt to free the capital For Saudi Arabia, the Houthis, who are allied to forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, are militarily supported by Iran, a charge the latter angrily rejects.
Groups linked to al Qaeda and jihadist militias linked to the Islamic State group are active in the country, which adds to the spiral of violence and terror.
According to sources of the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 6,200 people have been killed in the war; for the United Nations there is a strong risk of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Yemen.
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11/08/2017 20:05
03/10/2022 18:16
