The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced on Saturday that 47 children were “killed or maimed” in January and February in a war between Houthi rebels and the government that has ravaged Yemen since 2014.
Since the conflict began, “more than 10,200 children have been killed or injured,” adds Philippe Duhamel, a UN agency spokesman in the country, in a press release, while pointing out that real casualties are “probably higher.”
According to UNICEF, more than 2,500 schools are unusable after being destroyed, used for military purposes or used as a shelter for displaced people.
The war in Yemen has pitted the Iranian-backed Houthis against government forces since 2014, supported since 2015 by a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates.
The coalition claims that Iran and the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah are training the rebels and supplying them with military equipment. Iran denies any support other than political.
80% of the population depends on food aid
According to a UN report released in November 2021, the war has claimed nearly 380,000 lives, the vast majority of which are attributed to the indirect effects of the fighting, such as lack of drinking water, famine and disease.
A child receives treatment at a malnutrition treatment center in Taiz, Yemen, March 6, 2022. AHMAD AL BASHA/AFP
The organization has already reminded that the level of development of Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, has decreased by two decades due to the conflict. About 80% of the nearly 30 million inhabitants depend on humanitarian aid.
In January, the UN Security Council announced that between January 2020 and May 2021, about 2,000 child soldiers recruited by Houthi rebels had been killed.