UN says more than 11,000 children known to have been killed or maimed in Yemen’s civil war

The United Nations today said that more than 11,000 children are known to have been killed or maimed in Yemen’s civil war since it escalated nearly eight years ago. UNICEF’s executive director Catherine Russell said that thousands of children have lost their lives while hundreds of thousands more remain at risk of death from preventable diseases or starvation. The UN agency said that about 2.2 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, one-quarter of them aged under five, and most are at extreme risk from cholera, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Yemen’s war broke out in 2014 and quickly saw Iran-backed Huthi rebels seize the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year. Hundreds of thousands have died since, either as a result of fighting or indirectly through unsafe drinking water, disease outbreaks, hunger and other impacts. UNICEF’S latest numbers confirm 3,774 child deaths between March 2015 and September 2022. Ms Russell said that the urgent renewal of the truce would be a positive first step that would allow critical humanitarian access. UNICEF has appealed for 484.4 million Dollar in funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis.