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Children continue to be put at risk by conflict in Yemen: UNICEF

Xinhua, April 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Children's Fund ( UNICEF) warned that children continue to be killed, injured, displaced and put at risk of disease as conflict continues in Yemen, said a UN spokesperson here on Tuesday.

"Of the 560 people who have been killed since the start of the fighting, an estimated 74 of them are children. Another 44 children have been maimed," UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing.

Noting that Yemen is prone to food insecurity, UNICEF also expressed concern about the breakdown in water supply and sewage overflow could lead to increased risk of disease outbreaks, according to Dujarric.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Saudi-led airstrike hit a Shiite Houthi- controlled military base in central Yemeni province of Ibb on Tuesday, destroying the base and damaging a nearby school where two students were killed.

The security situation in Yemen has sharply deteriorated since early March when conflicts erupted in several provinces in the country's southern regions.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia started late last month airstrikes on Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action is to protect President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities they have seized since September 2014.

The UN Security Council on Saturday held an emergency meeting to discuss a draft resolution regarding humanitarian pauses in Yemen to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the country. So far, there is no result for the discussion.

Dujarric told reporters here that a plane carrying humanitarian staff landed in Sana'a Monday, and two more planes carrying medical supplies are expected later this week, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"In the last 24 hours, about 12 metric tons of medical supplies have arrived in Aden from Al Hudaydah, and distributed to health centers and hospitals," he said "Monthly food supplies have been distributed to more than 300 displaced families in Hajjah." Endite