Oxfam: Nearly 1,000 Child Casualties of US-Saudi War on Yemen in Year

YemenExtra

M.A.

At least 335 children have been killed and another 590 injured by US-Saudi violent attacks including airstrikes, mines and shelling an airstrike hit a bus in Sa’ada killing 41 school children, equivalent to another eight buses being hit, according to Oxfam International, citing data from the UN Civilian Impact Monitoring Project.

Many more have died from hunger and disease in a massive humanitarian crisis stoked by the aggression.

“The world was rightly appalled by an attack that took the lives of so many young, innocent schoolchildren. Yet almost one child a day has been killed in the year since and violence remains a daily threat for Yemenis, alongside the struggle against hunger and disease,” Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director said.

“The people of Yemen urgently need a nationwide ceasefire before more lives are lost to this horrific conflict and the humanitarian disaster that it is fueling,” he added. “All parties to the conflict and those with influence over them should do all in their power to end this deadly war now.”

Since the latest figures were published, more children have been killed or injured. Just last week an attack on a market killed at least 10 civilians, including children, in Sa’adah while in Taiz, five children were injured by shelling.

Airstrikes and shelling in Al-Dalae in May killed 10 children. In March, five children were killed in clashes in Taiz city while an attack on the Kushar district of Hajjah governorate killed 14 children. Over the year, there have been thirty incidents involving schools and eighteen involving hospitals.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the country’s former regime back to power. The Yemeni Army and Popular Committees have been playing a significant in defending the country against the Saudi war machine.

The United Nations has estimated that if the war continues until 2022, more than half a million people will be killed by fighting, hunger and disease.

Siddiquey said: “Seventy years after the creation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which seeks to protect civilians in and around war zones, children in Yemen still find themselves in the firing line.

“The international community should focus on protecting the lives of Yemeni civilians and ending this war, not profiting from it through arms sales.”