More than 11,000 children have been killed or maimed since Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen’s civil conflict in 2015, according to a report by the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef).
Because this is a UN-verified figure, the toll of the conflict is likely to be far higher, according to Unicef.
“Thousands of children have lost their lives, hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable disease or starvation,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell. She said basic services have “all but collapsed”.
While the UN-brokered truce between April and September reduced casualties, 62 children have been killed or injured between October – when the ceasefire ended – and the end of November.
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Three-quarters of the population of 30 million, of whom 12.9 million are children, depend on humanitarian assistance. The report says an estimated 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished, including nearly 540,000 children under the age of five who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are struggling to survive.
Nearly 18 million people, half of them children, lack safe water, sanitation, hygiene services, healthcare and routine vaccinations despite outbreaks of cholera, measles, and other preventable diseases. Some two million children are not in school, while up to six million could have their education disrupted as one-quarter of Yemen’s schools have been damaged or destroyed.
Ms Russell said: “If the children of Yemen are to have any chance of a decent future, then the parties to the conflict, the international community and all those with influence must ensure they are protected and supported.”
From its recent record global appeal for $10.3 billion, Unicef has allocated $2.6 billion for the Middle East and North Africa. Unicef regional director Adele Khodr said: “With almost half of the countries in the region living in crisis or undergoing ripple effects of conflicts and wars, children [are] in large need of assistance. Year after year, a dire situation gets much worse with many families becoming poorer.”
Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), which operates clinics across Yemen, said that while malnourishment has been a “persistent risk to children in Yemen,” the region’s poorest country, this risk has risen dramatically during the war. Many families cannot afford sufficient food, or nutritional food, due to rising prices and the depreciation of the currency. The high price of fuel prevents ailing Yemenis from accessing medical treatment. “This year, funding cuts have caused primary healthcare facilities to discontinue services or have insufficient supplies of medications,” said MSF.
The UN Development Programme has estimated that up to the end of 2021, 377,000 Yemenis died due to warfare, hunger, disease and poverty.
