About 8,400,000 Yemeni children to be deprived of education due to coalition war

On Jan 24, 2023 8:19 PM

SANAA, Jan. 24 (YPA) – The Saudi-led coalition forces have caused 8 million 400 thousand children to be deprived of education in Yemen.

In a statement issued by INSAF Organization for Defending Freedoms & Minorities, in conjunction with World Education Day, January 24, it stated that there are 2 million 400 thousand children out of school, out of an estimated 10.6 million children aged 6-17 years.

The statement indicated that the number of children who face interruption in education may rise to six million, while 8.1 million children need emergency educational assistance across the country.

Nearly 3,500 schools are either destroyed or damaged, with about 27% of them closed across the country, in addition to 66% of schools damaged due to severe violence, and 7% of them used as shelters for the Internally displaced people (IDPs).

The statement pointed out that teachers have also been affected by the war and the blockade, as an estimated 171,600 male and female teachers – or two-thirds of the teaching staff – have not received their salaries regularly since 2016, consequently stop teaching to find other ways to support their families, which puts nearly 4 million additional children at risk of losing access to education.

It indicated that 31 percent of Yemeni girls are out of school, as a result of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and the inability of families to provide basic educational needs.

According to the statement, the number of child victims of the war for nearly eight years has risen to 8 thousand 159 dead and wounded, of them 3,883 has been killed and 4,276 wounded until January 23.

It said that 12.6 million children need humanitarian assistance or protection, and it is estimated that poverty rates have risen to about 80 percent, out of every 10 children, more than 8 survive with families that do not have sufficient income to meet their basic needs.

The statement noted the expansion of the phenomenon of child labor during the war may exceed 4 times what it was previously, indicating that 1.4 million working children are deprived of their most basic rights, and about 34.3% of children aged 6-17 are working.

The organization held the US-backed Saudi-led coalition responsible for all crimes and violations against civilians, especially children, calling on the international community, international organizations, and human rights and humanitarian bodies to bear legal and humanitarian responsibility for the violations and heinous massacres that occur against civilians.

INSAF