UNICEF: Stop war on Yemen, a child is dying every 10 minutes

M.A.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) restated its warning on Sunday that a Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes from preventable diseases.

These calls come in light of the continued war and siege imposed by the coalition which is led by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States, Britain, and France.

“Every 10 minutes in Yemen a child is dying from preventable diseases,” said Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East Director for UNICEF at a press conference in Amman, Jordan. “The huge levels of malnutrition are one of the important underlying causes of that high mortality rate, but also the very low levels of vaccinations.”

“Yemen today is hell for children, not only for 50-60% of children but for every child in Yemen,” he said, warning that in Yemen, 1.8 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition where more than 400,000 are malnourished. Of whom 40% live in Hodeidah Governorate. ”

“Unfortunately, the situation in Yemen is difficult and continues to deteriorate. ًWhat made matters even worse in the war on Yemen is the economic crisis that leads to the scarcity of basic commodities for the Yemeni people,” he said.

“Thirty thousand (Yemeni) children under the age of five continue to die every year from diseases we can prevent if we eliminate malnutrition,” he said.

“The parties to the conflict must ensure humanitarian access and protection of the people without any conditions and restrictions,” he said.

The New York Times published a humanitarian report on the case of the girl named Amal, who died of illness and hunger at the age of seven, which opened the eyes of the world to the tragedy of Yemen. Amal is one of the hundreds of children who die on regular basis from the embargo imposed by the coalition against all Yemenis.

The picture of Amal shows her lying on a bed at a health center in Aslam in northwestern Yemen’s Hajjah Province, 144 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of the capital, Sana’a. Her mother, Mariam Ali, has told the paper that she died on October 26.

”My Heart is broken”, said Amal’s mother, adding, “Amal was always smiling. Now I’m worried about my other children.”

Since March 2015, a military campaign was launched by Saudi Arabia alongside with the UAE and many other countries against neighboring impoverished Yemen, and ever since, Saudi direct and indirect crimes have been carried out on the poorest people within the middle east.

More than 15,000 have died since the war started with the aim of returning Yemen’s former Saudi-backed president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has been living within the capital of the kingdom since the war began.

Arms deals and logistical support, as well as bombing coordinates and aerial refueling, has been a major help for the Saudi-led coalition, which is received from mostly the United States, but also from its close European allies, the UK and France.

Only three days before the surfacing of Amal’s picture, the United Nations humanitarian chief said the war had left as many as 8.4 million people in the country in need of urgent food aid.