Alwaght- Six children have been killed or maimed daily in Yemen since Saudi-led war began a year ago, the UN said Tuesday, warning the conflict was taking a horrifying toll on the country's youth.
In a report on Tuesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF said a year of Saudi war on Yemen had left 934 Yemeni kids dead and 1,356 more injured, with an average of six children suffering casualties every day. Yemeni sources say the Saudi military campaign that has left about 9,400 people dead, most of them civilians, since March 26, 2015
UINCEF described the figure as “only a tip of the iceberg” and said the Yemeni children are grappling with severe malnutrition, while millions of them do not have access to health care and clean water.
“Children are not safe anywhere in Yemen. Even playing or sleeping has become dangerous,” said UNICEF representative in Yemen Julien Harneis.
Some 320,000 children, the UNICEF said, face acute malnutrition, a serious case which can leave a child vulnerable to deadly respiratory infections, pneumonia and water-borne diseases.
“UNICEF estimates that nearly 10,000 children under 5 years may have died in the past year from preventable diseases,” the organization added.
The UN says 63 healthcare facilities have been attacked over the past year and three have been occupied for military purposes.
Saudi regime forces have deliberately bombed hospitals and health centers in Yemen in what Doctors Without Frontiers MSF have said amounts to war crimes.
There had been more than 50 direct attacks on schools and teachers, and some 50 schools have been occupied by fighters, UNICEF said.
More than 1,600 schools meanwhile remain closed due to insecurity, infrastructure damage or because they are being used to house some of the some 2.4 million people who have been displaced by the conflict. Many children are also being forced to take part in the violence surrounding them.
