loading…
UNICEF: 540 Thousand Children in Yemen Suffer from Acute Malnutrition. PHOTO/Reuters
SANAA – More than 540,000 children under the age of 5 in wealth suffer malnutrition life-threatening acute Additionally, a child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes, says the UN.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that it was forced to cut support for children in Yemen without financial aid. “Currently as many as 11 million children need humanitarian assistance,” said UNICEF, as quoted by Arab News, Friday (24/3/2023).
UNICEF says it needs $484 million to continue this year’s assistance. However, the United Nations only raised $1.2 billion for all of its agencies in Yemen at a pledge conference in Switzerland last month, well short of its $4.3 billion target.
“The funding gap that UNICEF continues to face into 2022 and from the start of 2023 puts the necessary humanitarian response to children in Yemen at risk,” the organization said.
“If funds are not received, UNICEF may be forced to reduce its vital support for vulnerable children,” the statement continued.
The conflict in Yemen started in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi militias seized the capital, Sanaa, in a coup. The Arab coalition intervened the following year in support of the legitimate government, and launched their first assault on Houthi positions on March 26, 2015.
The ceasefire ended last year, but the fighting remains largely on hold. More than 11,000 children are known to have been killed or maimed since the conflict escalated in 2015.
The fighting in Yemen has sparked what the United Nations has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies. It says more than 21.7 million people, two-thirds of Yemen’s population, will need humanitarian assistance this year.
(esn)
