In only 2017, At Least Five Children Killed and Injured Every Day: UNICEF

YemenExtra

SH.A.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Sunday that five Yemeni children were killed or seriously injured daily during 2017.

Kabalari, FAO Regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, made the remarks in a statement at a press conference in Amman, Jordan.

“In only 2017 , we have seen children still being killed and seriously injured at least five children every day,” said Kabalari, who concluded a visit to Yemen last week.

“In 2017 we saw an outbreak of cholera and diphtheria in Yemen, and many children died as a result,” he said.

The UN official pointed out that the children of Yemen “face acute humanitarian needs,” after three years of war.

“Yemen is among the three countries in the world with the largest number of severely malnourished children,” he noted.

“It is important to stress that the situation can get worse,” he said. “The risk of famine we have faced in Yemen remains largely unchanged.”

“Almost 2 million Yemeni boys and girls do not go to school or have not had the opportunity,” he said.

“We have been able to verify that 2,500 schools today are no longer serving educational purposes because they were either destroyed by the brutal war or used for military purposes or to host the displaced.

“Parents have to make a difficult choice of marrying their daughters at an early age, so they can feed less people at home.”

“75% of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 18, and half of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 15,” he said. Kabalari called for “a brutal war on children, not tomorrow, but now.”

Kabalari called on authorities throughout the country “to allow humanitarian aid to enter without any condition.”

The Saudi-led coalition, which has been waging a war against Yemen since March 26, 2015, is the responsible for most of the civilian casualties caused by air raids and the use of internationally banned weapons.