UNICEF: Yemen conflict has killed nearly 400 children
by Daily Sabah with AP
ISTANBULAug 20, 2015 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah with AP
Aug 20, 2015 12:00 am
The conflict in Yemen has killed nearly 400 children since the end of March, and a similar number of children have been recruited by armed groups, according to a new report by the U.N. children's agency. It warns that the fighting shows "no sign of a resolution."
This is UNICEF's first such alert on Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Shiite Houthi rebels since late March. Millions have been trapped in the conflict, and aid groups have warned that many people are on the brink of starvation.
"Basic services that children depend on have been decimated," UNICEF said. Its report said that as of a week ago, 398 children have been killed, 377 have been recruited to fight and 1.3 million have fled their homes. Months of brutal conflict in the country have killed or injured more than 1,000 children in total – an average of eight casualties every day – the report said. The war has killed more than 4,300 people, many of them civilians, and spread disease and hunger throughout the country. "Abdul was 4 years old, and he was killed by a sniper," the report quotes one local child, 7-year-old Nada Nussir as saying. "I do not want to die like him." Human rights groups have expressed concern that both sides are violating the laws of war and not doing enough to protect civilians. Amnesty International this week called on the U.N. to create a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged war crimes.
The U.N. and aid groups have called repeatedly for ways to get food, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Yemen, but tight restrictions imposed by the coalition on air and sea transport remain in place, while Yemen's exiled government accuses the Houthis of hijacking aid. Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, and its population relies on imports for about 90 percent of its supplies. Attempts at U.N.-brokered humanitarian pauses to bring in aid have failed.
The new UNICEF report says about 10 million children, or half of the country's population, need urgent humanitarian assistance. It also says more than half a million pregnant women in Yemen's hardest-hit areas are at higher risk for birth or pregnancy complications because they can't get to medical facilities.Saudi Arabia months ago pledged to fully fund a $274 million emergency U.N. appeal for Yemen, but a UNICEF spokesman, Rajat Madhok, on Tuesday told The Associated Press that the agency has not received any money from the appeal. Discussions between the kingdom and the world body on the terms of the funding have long delayed the money.
Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September when Houthi militants overran Sanaa from which they have sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country. On March 25, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began an extensive air campaign targeting Houthi positions across the country. Some Gulf countries accuse Iran of supporting the Houthi-led insurgency that forced Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to flee the country.The head of the international Red Cross, Peter Maurer said: "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years." Maurer, fresh off a trip to Yemen, said entrenched poverty, months of intensified warfare and limits on imports because of an international embargo have contributed to "catastrophic" conditions. In an interview, Maurer contrasted Yemen's war with others in the Middle East "where infrastructures are better off, and people are wealthier and have reserves and can escape."
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