More than 11,000 children have been killed, injured or maimed in Yemen and another 4,000 have been called to war since 2015, the United Nations (UN) said Monday.
Since 2014, Yemen has been embroiled in conflict between Houthi rebels, close to Iran, and government forces backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, including the United Arab Emirates. The Houthis control the capital Sanaa and large parts of the territory in the north and west of the country.
According to the UN Agency for the Defense of the Rights of the Child – UNICEF – the war in Yemen has already claimed 11,019 child victims, of whom 3,774 have died. The previous balance was 10,200 minors dead, injured or maimed.
The new balance covers the period between March 2015 and September 30, 2022, taking into account only UNICEF-verified cases, meaning the actual balance is “probably much higher,” the organization stressed.
In that period analyzed, 3,995 children were recruited into the war, mostly boys to fight, and 91 girls to be at checkpoints or to “take part in certain events,” the France-Presse agency reported.
The conflict in Yemen erupted when Houthi rebels occupied Sanaa and other provinces of the country and ousted the president, Abdo Rabu Hadi, who is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia.
Since then, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have intervened militarily in this conflict to try and defeat the Shiite rebels backed by Iran and restore the exiled leader’s power.
A two-month ceasefire brokered by the United Nations (UN) took effect on April 2 this year, has since been extended twice and ended on October 2.
Source: DN
