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Warring parties in Yemen must protect schools: UNICEF

Xinhua, October 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday urged all parties to the Yemeni conflict to protect schools, students and teachers as the war-torn country's schools open this week.

"Parties to the conflict should keep children and schools out of harm to give education a chance," UNICEF Yemen Representative Julien Harneis said in a statement.

"Children who are out of school are at risk of recruitment to fight," he warned.

The United Nations has indicated that since violence escalated over 18 months ago, 1,210 children, some as young as eight years old, have been recruited by armed factions.

According to figures, over 2 million Yemeni children do not have access to education as a result of the violence which kicked off in March last year.

UNICEF indicated that over 2,100 schools across the country can no longer be used because of damage, destruction or the fact they are being used by internally displaced people or for military purposes.

In light of this, UNICEF is asking for 34 million U.S. dollars to reconstruct damaged schools, provide resources for teaching, training and learning while carrying out the Back-to-School campaign which aims to provide children with a learning opportunity. Enditem