Dubai: Thousands of children have been killed or injured in fighting between government forces and rebels in Yemen, and many are suffering from water shortages and malnutrition, the United Nations children fund said on Friday.
More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes by fighting in the north in the past few years, 60 per cent of them children. In a different separatist conflict in the south, 2,000 families have been displaced in recent weeks by clashes in Al Hawta
"Children have been injured in the fighting and continue to be at risk from unexploded ordnance, landmines and other explosive remnants of war," Geert Cappelaere, Unicef's representative in Yemen, said.
"Schools that have just re-opened have been disrupted because school buildings are being used to host displaced people."
In the north the civil war with Al Houthi rebels has raged since 2004. An inter-agency report showed that eight per cent of displaced families had had a child killed as a result of the conflict.
Bold attacks
Bloody confrontations between Al Qaida militants and security forces are also on the rise as the group stages increasingly bold attacks on international and domestic targets. Yemen became a global security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of Al Qaida claimed responsibility for a botched bombing of a US-bound airliner on December 25.
"All parties to the conflict must put the safety and wellbeing of all children first, irrespective of circumstance. Putting children at the centre of the development agenda may be the best option to nurture a peaceful environment," Cappelaere said.
