UNICEF calls for efforts to protect Yemeni children

GENEVA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- More than three million children have been born in Yemen since conflict escalated in March 2015, and they've since faced violence, displacement, disease, poverty, under-nutrition not to mention lack of access to water, health care and education, according to a UNICEF report released Tuesday.

"An entire generation of children in Yemen is growing up knowing nothing but violence. Children in Yemen are suffering the devastating consequences of a war that is not of their making," said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF representative in Yemen.

"Malnutrition and disease are rampant as basic services collapse. Those who survive are likely to carry the physical and psychological scars of conflict for the rest of their lives," she added.

The organization's report reveals that more than 5,000 children have been killed or injured in the violence, an estimated 1.8 million children are acutely malnourished, including nearly 400,000 who are fighting for their lives. Suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhea have affected over one million people, with children under five years old accounting for a quarter of all cases.

Even before the conflict escalated in 2015, Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East and among the poorest in the world, having suffered decades of conflict, under-development and economic decline.

The report thus calls on all parties to the conflict and the global community to prioritize the protection of children in Yemen.

This means, according to UNICEF, immediately reaching a peaceful political solution and putting an end to the violence, abiding by international humanitarian law to protect children unconditionally during conflict, and providing sustainable and unconditional access to assistance to every child in need in Yemen. Enditem