Children in Yemen face life-threatening malnutrition
/abonnement/YEMEN – Hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen face life-threatening malnutrition, millions lack access to health care or clean water, and some have been drafted as soldiers in the year-old war, the United Nations Children’s Fund said today. A UNICEF report said all sides had “exponentially increased” the use of child soldiers in the conflict between Houthi forces, allied to Iran, and a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. “On average, at least six children have been killed or injured every day,” said the report “Childhood on the Brink”. UNICEF has confirmed 934 children directly killed and 1,356 injured, but says they are “only a tip of the iceberg”. “Sixty-one percent of those (children) killed and injured were in (Saudi-led) air strikes across the country,” Julien Harneis, UNICEF’s Representative in Yemen, told a briefing by telephone from the capital Sana’a.(Reuters)…[+]