SANA’A (Al Jazeera/ Xinhua) – At least 47 children were “killed or maimed” in the Saudi-led civil war in Yemen in January and February following a surge in the attacks, the United Nations children’s fund said on Saturday.
Children are the “first and most to suffer”, UNICEF said, adding that at least 10,000 minors have been killed or injured since 2015, when the Saudi-led military alliance launched air raids in the Middle East’s poorest country.
“Just over the first two months of this year, 47 children were reportedly killed or maimed in several locations across Yemen,” Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF representative to Yemen, said in a statement.
“Since the conflict escalated in Yemen nearly seven years ago, the UN verified that more than 10,200 children have been killed or injured. The actual number is likely much higher.”
“Violence, misery and grief have been commonplace in Yemen with severe consequences on millions of children and families,” Duamelle said.
“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.”
Meanwhile, UNICEF warned on Friday that millions of Yemeni people are at risk of famine as a result of the years-long Saudi-led aggression and sharp deterioration of its economy, calling for urgent action.
“Children in Yemen are starving not because of a lack of food, but because their families cannot afford food,” the UNICEF said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The UN organization said that “the impact of the economic collapse on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen cannot be understated.”
“Without urgent action, millions could be plunged into famine,” it warned.
According to the UNICEF mission in Yemen, nearly 400,000 children under the age of five are slipping from acute malnutrition to severe acute malnutrition.
Saudi Arabia and its regional allies — including the United Arab Emirates — launched a brutal war against Yemen. The war was meant to eliminate Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall a former regime. The conflict, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people.