Yemeni Children Are Not Responsible in Adults’ War But They Are The First Victims

YemenExtra

SH.A.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday that the war waged by Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has deprived 8.6 million children of access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.

“400,000 children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition and are trying to survive,” the organization said in a tweet on its Yemen office page. “Every child should have clean water and be protected from waterborne diseases, such as cholera.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday revealed that more than 11 million Yemeni children, who make up 80 percent of the country’s children, need humanitarian assistance, saying “Yemen’s children bear the brunt of nearly four years of devastating conflict.”

The coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has been waging a military, economic and media war against Yemen since late March 2015, in addition to the land, sea and air blockade. More than 50,000 Yemenis, mostly women and children, have been killed and wounded during the war, which also led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 85,000 children died of starvation and blockade.

The blockade was first imposed in March 2015, when Riyadh and a coalition of its allies unleashed a brutal military campaign against the poorest Arabian Peninsula state.

The recent closures have further hindered the flow of aid supplies to the impoverished country.

Today, nearly 400,000 children in Yemen are at risk of death from severe acute malnutrition. To potentially add tens of thousands more children to this toll – tens of thousands more personal catastrophes for children and grieving parents – is simply inhuman,” the UNICEF statement said.

“Children are not responsible for the war and carnage created by the adults. But they are the first victims,” the statement. “We must ask all the parties: What kind of Yemen do the ultimate victors expect to gain as they destroy it?”

The Saudi regime and its allies were placed on a UN blacklist last month for killing and injuring more than 683 children in Yemen and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals during 2016.