Dozens of children killed, maimed in Yemen in two months: UNICEF

Children are the “first and most to suffer”, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said, adding that at least 10,000 minors have been killed or injured since 2015, when the Saudi-led military alliance launched air raids in the Middle East’s poorest country, Al Jazeera reported.

“Just over the first two months of this year, 47 children were reportedly killed or maimed in several locations across Yemen,” Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF representative to Yemen, said in a statement.

“Since the conflict escalated in Yemen nearly seven years ago, the UN verified that more than 10,200 children have been killed or injured. The actual number is likely much higher.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of Yemen’s war.

“Violence, misery and grief have been commonplace in Yemen with severe consequences on millions of children and families,” Duamelle said.

“It is high time that a sustainable political solution is reached for people and their children to finally live in the peace they so well deserve.”

The conflict has caused a collapse in basic services such as healthcare and education, with millions of people displaced and 80 percent of the population dependent on aid.

More than 2,500 schools are unusable, according to UNICEF, as they have been destroyed, converted for military purposes, or used to shelter the displaced.

A report released by the UN Security Council in January said nearly 2,000 children recruited by the rebels had died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies — including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015. The war was meant to eliminate Yemen’s popular Houthi movement and reinstall a former regime. The conflict, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people, Press TV wrote.

The Saudi-led coalition has been preventing fuel shipments from reaching Yemen, while looting the impoverished nation’s resources.

The UN says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger. The world body also refers to the situation in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.