TEHRAN- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that dozens of children have been “killed or maimed” in the war on Yemen just two months since the start of the year as the war “continues to escalate”. 

In a statement, Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF’s Representative in Yemen said that “over the first two months of 2022, 47 children were reportedly killed or maimed in several locations across the country.”

“Since the conflict escalated in Yemen nearly seven years ago, the UN has verified that more than 10,200 children have been killed or injured. The actual number is likely much higher” 

The Saudi-led American-backed coalition waged war on Yemen in March 2015 and experts say tens of thousands of children have been killed. 

Duamelle has called on all parties to take all possible measures to protect civilians, saying that “It is high time that a sustainable political solution is reached for people and their children to finally live in the peace they so well deserve.”

He added that “violence, misery, and grief have been commonplace in Yemen with severe consequences for millions of children and families.”

The latest remarks come on the backdrop of UNICEF’s annual report, which highlights the scale of the humanitarian crisis in the country and the devastating impact this has had on children. 

The shocking details published two weeks ago reported “nine attacks on schools and five attacks on hospitals were verified” in 2021, as well as six incidents of military use of education or health facilities. 386 children were killed or maimed “by various parties to the conflict,” has raised questions.

As the U.S. and Europe impose one of the harshest sanctions regime on Russia and Russians from all walks of life for Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, there has been a wide debate about the double standards practiced by Washington. 

The U.S. has supported the richest Kingdom in the region, waging war on the poorest nation in the region.

It has provided hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Riyadh that have all been used against Yemenis. America has provided logistical and intelligence support. One of the worst tragedies of the airstrikes was a missile that hit a school bus killing around 50 children and injuries scores of others. American news media investigations found the remnants of the bomb with American fingerprints all over it. 

One airstrike alone on a funeral killed hundreds of civilians, while hospitals, schools, communication towers, residential neighborhoods have been struck. There isn’t much of Yemen that hasn’t been hit. 

This war has been going on for seven years, countless number of children as UNICEF notes have been traumatized if not killed or maimed.

And according to UNICEF’s report, children are not just dying from violence alone. The all-out blockade on the country has led to rising diseases among kids who are suffering and dying from infections that can be avoided if there is access to food and medicine in the country.

According to the UN paper, “over 2.25 million children 0-59 months were projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021,” with nearly 400,000 cases of children estimated to endure severe acute malnutrition.
In 2015, Washington supported the Saudi-led coalition in its military campaign against the people of Yemen in an effort to restore the former government which was loyal to Riyadh. 

While Saudi Arabia said the military operation would be over in a matter of weeks, stubborn Yemeni resistance and recently more sophisticated retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates caught Riyadh off guard and taken the entire American-backed coalition by surprise. 

Nevertheless, the war has had a major impact on the people of Yemen, it’s economy, and other vital sectors. According to UNICEF, since 2015 Yemen’s economy has shrunk by more than half, with over 80% of the population currently living below the poverty line.

UNICEF reports that between January and September 2021, the UN Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting (UNCTFMR) documented 2,350 incidents of grave violations against children, and 92 percent of the reported incidents were verified. The number of child casualties remained high including 386 children killed and maimed (86 girls, 300 boys). Since the war started, over 10,000 children have been killed or injured from violence. 

This is widely believed to be a conservative figure which experts have challenged saying the United Nations’ recently announced death toll of hundreds of thousands of people killed is itself a low figure as the UN stopped counting for several years admitting it was impossible to do so. 

According to UNICEF in 2021, International Humanitarian Law continued to be challenged, with attacks on or use of public service facilities such as schools, hospitals as well as water and sanitation services. During the reporting period, nine attacks on schools and five attacks on hospitals were verified. UNCTFMR also verified six incidents of military use of education or health facilities

Yemen is currently suffering from the impacts of a protracted war with human development set back more than 20 years. Seven years into the conflict, 20.7 million people (70 percent of the total population) need humanitarian assistance. 

Nearly four million people, including two million children, are internally displaced, making this the fourth largest internally displaced population globally.

The war has led to the virtual collapse of basic social services with COVID-19 exacerbating the crisis

Throughout 2021, over 50 districts across Yemen were directly affected by active frontlines, up from 45 districts in 2020 and 35 districts at the end of 2019. 

The escalation in hostilities and shifting frontlines in Ma’rib and Al Bayda governorates, along with continued clashes in Hajjah, Al Hodeidah, Ad Dali’, Ta’iz City, and adjacent areas, has contributed to the challenging humanitarian situation.

The UN children’s fund says the fuel crisis continues and it’s engaging with the authorities working towards a sustained, safe, and principled humanitarian response across the country.

For the first time since the beginning of the war, no commercial fuel imports entered Al Hodeidah seaport for 52 days (28 January to 21 March 2021)

As more than half of Yemen’s commercial fuel imports came through Al Hodeidah in recent years, this had a significant impact on the availability and price of fuel, raising the cost of transportation, food, and threatening medical services as well as the supply of clean water and electricity.

In 2021, children in Yemen continued to be impacted upon by the limited basic social services. 

UNICEF has documented less than 50 percent of the health facilities in Yemen are functioning and those that are operational lack specialists, equipment, and basic medicines.
The war has taken a toll on children’s access to education. An estimated two million children of estimated 10 million school-aged children (5 to 17 years old) are out of school. 

This war must end but the American military-industrial complex is making too much profit for this war to end. And so are the weapons‘ manufacturers of other Western countries who shed crocodile tears for Ukraine but have maintained their silence for seven years over Yemen. 

Analysts argue that Washington neither cares for Ukrainians or Yemenis, it wants to destabilize West Asia and Eastern Europe and hit independent countries with a brutal sanctions regime, but it can’t sanction itself or it’s allies.