UN: Children first to suffer as war in Yemen escalates and 47 hurt or killed

AT least 47 children were killed or injured in war-torn Yemen in the first two months of 2022 as fighting escalated between government forces and the Houthi rebels, the UN has said.

The country has been convulsed by civil war since 2014 when the

Iran-backed Houthis took control of the capital Sana’a and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed by the US and United Arab Emirates, to try restoring President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

The fighting has escalated since the beginning of 2022 as the Saudiled coalition stepped up its support to government ground forces to fend off a year-long Houthi offensive on the central city of Marib.

The clashes have also intensified elsewhere in the Arab world’s poorest country.

“Violence has continued to escalate this year and as always children are the first and most to suffer”, said Philippe Duamelle, Unicef representative to Yemen.

“Just over the first two months of this year, 47 children were reportedly killed or maimed in several locations across Yemen.”

He called on all warring parties and their backers to protect civilians, especially children whose “safety, well-being and protection must be safeguarded at all times”.

Mr Duamelle said the war has killed or injured 10,200 children over seven years, with the actual tally likely to be much higher.

The conflict has become a regional proxy war in which more than 150,000 Yemenis have been killed.