The figures for the conflict in Yemen are dire. Forty-seven children were “killed or maimed” in January and February in the war that is devastating the country, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Since the beginning of the conflict “more than 10,200 children have been killed or injured”, laments this Saturday in a press release Philippe Duamelle, representative of the UN agency in the country. Above all, he stresses that the real balance sheet is “probably higher”. In addition, more than 2,500 schools are unusable following being destroyed, occupied for military purposes or used as refuge for the displaced.
Power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran
The war in Yemen since 2014 pits the Houthis, supported by Iran, once morest government forces, supported since 2015 by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and in which the United Arab Emirates participate in particular. This coalition claims that Iran and Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite movement, are training rebel fighters and supplying them with military equipment. Iran denies any support other than political.
According to a UN report published in November 2021, the war has claimed nearly 380,000 lives, the vast majority of them due to the indirect consequences of the fighting, such as lack of drinking water, hunger and disease. The organization had already recalled that the level of development of Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, had declined by two decades as a result of the conflict. Some 80% of the nearly 30 million inhabitants depend on humanitarian aid.
