Seventeen children have been killed in Yemen since the beginning of January 2022, due to the ongoing war that started nearly seven years ago.
The UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ted Chaiban, stressed that “the number of children killed in Yemen only since the beginning of this year is 17,” adding that “this number is nearly double the number in the whole of last December.”
He continued, “Children in Yemen remain the first to pay the price in nearly seven years, in one of the most brutal armed conflicts in modern history.”
UNICEF calls on “the parties to the conflict in Yemen, and those who have influence over them, to protect civilians, including children, at all times,” pointing out “the need to protect civilian areas and civilian infrastructure, including educational and medical facilities, and not to target them.”
More than 10,000 children were killed and injured
The United Nations has documented the injury and death of more than 10,000 children since the escalation of the Yemeni conflict in 2015, noting that “the actual number is likely to be much higher.”
The UN said that the time has come to stop violence and adopt a political solution, stressing that “this is the only solution to save children’s lives and prevent further misery and suffering for the families trapped in the conflict.”
Last October, the World Health Organisation announced that three-quarters of Yemen’s children suffer from “malnutrition”.
Since about seven years ago, Yemen has been witnessing a war that has claimed 233,000 lives, and 80% of the population, numbering about 30 million, is now dependent on aid to survive, in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.
