More than 11,000 children have been killed or injured in the civil war in Yemen since it escalated nearly eight years ago.
In nearly 8 years of war, Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, while the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that children pay the most.
“For children, life has become a struggle for survival. Thousands have lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more are still at risk of death,” the organization’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a report after a visit to Yemen this month.
Yemen’s war broke out in 2014 and quickly saw Iran-backed Houthi rebels seize the capital, Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene in support of the government the following year.
Hundreds of thousands have died since then, either as a result of the fighting or indirectly through unsafe drinking water, disease, hunger and other effects.
Among the victims, UNICEF reported that 3,774 children (2,742 boys, 983 girls, and 49 unknown persons) were killed, and 7,245 others (5,299 boys and 1,946 girls) were injured.
While 62 children were killed and injured between the end of the recent truce in Yemen at the beginning of October and the end of November.
UNICEF adds, “At least 74 children are among the 164 people killed or injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance between July and September 2022.”
In addition to the deaths and injuries of thousands, the organization’s report also referred to the recruitment of 3,995 children in the battles in Yemen, in addition to the participation of 91 girls in events or at field checkpoints.
UNICEF believes that the real number of child victims in Yemen is much higher than what was stated in its report.
UNICEF said that about 2.2 million Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition, a quarter of them under the age of five, and most of them are at high risk of cholera, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
More than 17.8 million Yemenis, including 9.2 million children, lack access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.
More than 23 million people out of 30 million people, including 12.9 million children, need humanitarian assistance and protection in Yemen.
UNICEF urgently needs $484.4 million to respond to the humanitarian crisis in 2023, according to the report.
