Coalition’s war threatens Yemen children lives: UNICEF

SANAA, Nov. 22 (YPA) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday that the war waged by Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has deprived 8.6 million children of access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.

“400,000 children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition and are trying to survive,” the organization said in a tweet on its Yemen office page. “Every child should have clean water and be protected from waterborne diseases, such as cholera.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday revealed that more than 11 million Yemeni children, who make up 80 percent of the country’s children, need humanitarian assistance, saying “Yemen’s children bear the brunt of nearly four years of devastating conflict.”

The coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has been waging a military, economic and media war against Yemen since late March 2015, in addition to the land, sea and air blockade. More than 50,000 Yemenis, mostly women and children, have been killed and wounded during the war, which also led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 85,000 children died of starvation.

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