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Saudi’s violence against Yemeni kids must stop: Yemen Foreign Ministry

The file photo shows mourners carrying the coffin of a child at the funeral procession for those killed in a Saudi-led airstrike on a bus in Yemen. (By Getty Images)

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry has demanded an immediate and unconditional end to the Saudi-led military coalition’s violence against children in the embattled country.

In a statement released on the occasion of the World Children’s Day, which is celebrated on November 20 each year, the ministry said children are subjected to heinous crimes by the aggressor states.

The children have either been killed or maimed in the coalition attacks. Schools and hospitals have been bombed, and children have been deprived of their healthcare and educational rights, the statement added.

The ministry statement, citing figures compiled by the United Nations, noted that there are about 12.2 million children in Yemen in dire need of humanitarian aid, more than five million children under the age of five who suffer from malnutrition, about 1.71 million displaced children, and more than two million children out of school.

Incessant coalition attacks have also resulted in the death of more than 3,790 children, and the injury of over 4,000 others, it said.

In the statement, there was also a part where the United Nations’ removal of the  coalition from a blacklist of parties violating the rights of children was highlighted. The move, it said, was a setback by the UN in regard to globally protecting and promoting children’s rights; the removal also gave Saudi Arabia the carte blanche to continue committing war crimes against Yemeni children.

The statement called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to re-include the Saudi-led coalition in the list of groups violating children’s rights, or it would be considered a ‘partner in the killing’ of Yemeni children.

The Sana’a-based National Salvation Government, the statement said, respects international humanitarian law, and is committed to the protection of children’s rights in Yemen.

The ministry statement urged condemnation of the crimes  against Yemeni kids. It called on the freedom-loving people around the world, the UN chief, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba de Potgieter, the UN Human Rights Council and all the concerned organizations, especially UNICEF, to act in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Rights center: Yemeni children's rights violated in Saudi war

Meanwhile, the Center for Human Rights in the Yemeni province of Ta’izz also announced on Sunday that children’s rights are being violated due to Saudi atrocities against people of Yemen.

The center said more than 850 children in Ta’izz province have either been killed or injured by Saudi attacks, which have destroyed scores of schools in.

The Ta’izz Human Rights Center also slammed the international community for its silence in the face of Saudi crimes against the Yemeni people, holding it responsible for the violation of the Yemeni children’s rights.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war on Yemen has claimed more than 100,000 lives since 2015.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies sought to restore former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the popular Ansarullah movement when they launched the deadly campaign in March that year.

The conflict lingers. The coalition has not achieved its objective.


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