Saudi Air Strikes Kill Yemeni Children
Written By: Mona Zaid
The four-and-year war in Yemen has left more than 18,000 civilian casualties most of whom were children. Death is not the only threat for children in Yemen, here are the challenges for Yemeni children.
The conflict poses a grave danger to Yemen’s next generation with several factors contributing to the dire situation.
Farms and agricultural industry of Yemen have several times came under air bombardment, worsening the already bad conditions the country has been facing.
Hollywood actor Jim Carrey was among the first few people who sought an answer to such questions, following a US-backed Saudi coalition air strike that targeted a school bus and killed 44 children in Yemen .
It, obviously, wasn’t the first of its kind, but just one of more than 60 air strikes that hit civilian vehicles .
Only one week after the school bus attack, 22 more children and four women were killed in another Saudi air strike, again with US-provided weapons, while they were trying to flee fighting in the south port city of Hodeidah .
The World Health Organization (WHO) said, in annual report 2018 Yemen, more than 17million people lacked access to health services as 60 percent of the health facilities are closed or partially functioning.
Due to air strikes by the Saudi-led air strikes, 378 health facilities have been destroyed or partially damaged, said the report.
The conflict has had devastating consequences in Yemen, an estimated 24 million Yemenis are in need of assistance as food and other aid supplies cannot reach those who need it. Millions of children are on the brink of starvation in one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time, the violence has also driven 3 million people from their homes, half of them children.
CEO of Save the Children International, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said: “This brutal conflict has now been raging for four years. Yemen’s children have borne the brunt of this crisis, from being bombed in their schools and hospitals to being denied life-saving aid, their suffering must end.
Malnutrition is one of the major problems in Yemen, where it is seen in record numbers.
Children in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, have been facing acute malnutrition since the beginning of a four-and-year war between the Saudi-led coalition .
Harsh conditions of malnutrition threaten a quarter of the 28 million population in Yemen with a million children under the age of 5 severely malnourished, according to the WHO.
It added that 600,000 children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
More than 9,000 children have been killed or injured in the violence as a result of attacks by the US-backed Saudi coalition, said the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
The number means an average of about six children have been killed every day since the conflict began ,the psychological impact of the conflict has also been devastating for children ,according to UNICEF.
According to the CIMP data, air strikes regularly killed or injured several children at once as they hit populated areas where the risk of civilian casualties was greater.
On April 17th 2018, an airstrike reportedly hit a civilian family’s house in the port city of Hodeidah, killing a man, his wife and five of their children. On August 6th, 40 children were among 51 civilians killed when an airstrike hit a school bus in a local market.
Preventable diseases are one of the leading causes of death among children as the health service in Yemen is almost collapsed.
UNICEF said that as many as 66,000 Yemeni children under the age of five die every year from preventable diseases.
Half of them die during childbirth or in the first month of their life and others die from diarrhea and pneumonia, said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF resident representative in Yemen.
Nearly half a million children have dropped out of school since the 2015 escalation of conflict in Yemen, bringing the total number of out-of-school children to 3 million, said the UNICEF.
Children risk being Saudi air strikes on their way to school. Fearing for their children’s safety, many parents choose to keep their children at home.
Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s Country Director in Yemen, said: “The use of explosive weapons in populated areas is a cruel tactic as they indiscriminately destroy all in their path. It is impossible to imagine the terror a child must feel when a bomb drops on their home, yet many were killed or wounded while they sought safety in their homes or when they were fleeing from danger.
No child should have to endure the terror of an air strike, yet it continues to happen, leaving deep physical and mental scars.
Since the escalation of the conflict there have been more than 20,000 air raids, devastating hospitals, schools and infrastructure and inflicting terrible damage on children.
Almost 250 children were travelling by car or close to a car when they were hit, according to the data of the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP), sometimes while fleeing for safety, the number of children killed and wounded is likely to be even higher as not all civilian casualties in Yemen are reported publicly.
An air strikes are the largest cause of conflict-related deaths and injuries among Yemen’s children , during the fourth year of the conflict in Yemen, 56 per cent of the children killed or injured were hit by bombs dropped from an aircraft.
Save the Children is calling on governments to suspend arms sales to warring parties in Yemen while children continue to be killed and maimed indiscriminately, and to make sure strong monitoring and accountability are in place, countries with influence over the warring parties or in the UN Security Council are being urged to use their power to push the political negotiations forward. Save the Children fights for children every single day. We do whatever it takes to make sure they survive, get protection when they’re in danger, and have the chance to learn, because every child should be able to make their mark on their world, and help to build a better future for us all.
“Yemen is a textbook example of how every war is a war waged on children. We need to stop this war on children now and are demanding that all warring parties and governments abide by international law – that means schools and hospitals should be safe, explosive weapons should never be used in populated areas, and arms should not be sold where there is a risk they will be used to breach international law. Anyone who breaks the rules of war must be held to account and children must get the support and aid they need to recover from the physical and invisible wounds of war.”