Unfortunate! Over 5,000 children killed or injured in Yemen conflict

New York, January 18: The situation in Yemen has gone to worst as it is suffering from dual attack ie. civil war and another one from the outbreak of cholera. The civil war in Yemen has killed or injured more than 5,000 children and left another 400,000 severely malnourished and fighting for their lives. 

In a report released on Tuesday, the UNICEF said more than 5,000 children have been killed or seriously wounded as a result of the conflict in Yemen. “Nearly 2 million Yemeni children were out of school, a quarter of them since the conflict escalated when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015,” UNICEF added in its report.

UNICEF also said, “More than 3 million children were born into the war, it said, adding they had been scarred by years of violence, displacement, disease, poverty, undernutrition and a lack of access to basic services.” UNICEF also noted that more than 5,000 children killed or injured in the violence amounted to an average of five children every day since March 2015.

The report also stated that more than 11 million children need assistance and further warned that 400,000 children under 5 are in life-threatening conditions. UNICEF representative in Yemen Meritxell Relano said, “An entire generation of children in Yemen is growing up knowing nothing but violence.” “Children in Yemen are suffering the devastating consequences of a war that is not of their making,” he concluded.

BACKGROUND:

Some 75 percent of Yemen’s population is in need of humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million children who cannot survive without it. While the death toll has surged to 2,235 and the suspected cholera cases has reached over 1.5 million. Due to an outbreak of cholera in April last year, 96% parts of Yemen is severely hampered and affected.

The strategic Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, which is under Houthi control, has the highest number of cases with over 143,000 while the island of Socotra is the only area that has not witnessed a cholera outbreak. On the other side, Hajjah province has had the highest number of cholera deaths with 417.

Interestingly, with over 20 million people dependent on aid, Yemen is the world's single largest humanitarian crisis, now made even worse with the outbreak of cholera. Less than half the country’s hospitals are running and less than a third of the needed medicines are available due to which conditions are getting worst.

Saudi Arabia and other countries support the Yemeni government. Their military coalition has been conducting air attacks against Shia rebels since March 2015. The anti-government forces are reported to be supported by Iran.

In 2011, some 719,377 suspected cases of cholera were recorded in Haiti, and 8,767 people died, according to national figures cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An epidemic late last year faded but outbreaks are frequent and made worse by the degrading of health and sanitation systems by more than two years of civil war that has also killed at least 10,000 people and displaced millions. Earlier, in 2011, some 719,377 suspected cases of cholera were recorded in Haiti, and 8,767 people died.