Nearly 400 children have been killed and more than 600 injured – equating to an average of eight being killed or maimed every day – since fighting in Yemen escalated some four months ago, according to a new report from UNICEF.
The Yemen: Childhood Under Threat report also found that the numbers of children recruited or used in the conflict has more than doubled from 156 verified cases in 2014 to 377 so far this year, that 1.8 million children are likely to suffer malnutrition by the end of the year, and that more than 1.8 million children have been affected by school closures.
Other findings showed that 15.2 million children lack access to basic healthcare – with some 900 health facilities closed since late March – and that 20.4 million people need assistance to establish or maintain access to safe water and sanitation due to fuel shortages, damage to infrastructure and insecurity.
Julien Harneis, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, said the conflict is a “particular tragedy for Yemeni children”. “Children are being killed by bombs or bullets and those that survive face the growing threat of disease and malnutrition. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
Mr Harneis said UNICEF urgently needed funds with only 16.2 per cent of the organisation’s funding appeal target of $US182.6 million met so far.
“We urgently need funds so we can reach children in desperate need,” he said. “We cannot stand by and let children suffer the consequences and a humanitarian catastrophe.”
The agency has provided psychological support to more than 150,000 children to help them cope with the horrors of the conflict in the past six months and taught some 280,000 people how to avoid injury from unexploded ordnance and mines.
