Al-Thawra Net
‘More than 11 million Yemeni children are today in acute need of humanitarian assistance. That’s almost every single Yemeni boy and girl,’ the UNICEF Press Center website quoted Geert Cappelaere as saying on Monday.
‘The reason behind this is very straightforward: decades of conflict, decades also of chronic underdevelopment,’ he added.
‘Yemen is the country with the most depleted water sources across the globe; Yemen today is also the country with almost the highest level of malnutrition. What has happened in the last two and a half years, throughout Yemen has of course only exacerbated what was already a very sad reality,’ said the UNICEF Press Center.
‘Today we estimate that every ten minutes a child in Yemen is dying from preventable diseases. The massive and unprecedented outbreak of acute watery diarrhea and cholera this year is no surprise. As you know, close to one million Yemenis have been affected by acute watery diarrhea and cholera.’
‘It’s not a surprise, because of the almost entirely devastated water and sanitation system throughout the country. Not a surprise, because in Yemen the health system is on its knees,’ he said.
UNICEF earlier announced on November 25 that about 23,000 children have been killed in 2016 in Yemen. The United Nations has recognized Saudi-backed coalition as responsible for Yemeni crisis.
In response to Yemeni Army missile attack on Riyadh, the coalition supported by Saudi Arabia increased air strikes to Sana’a and blocked all air, road and sea ways leading to Yemen.
In the wake of international pressures on Arab coalition, they were forced to re-open Sana’a Airport and Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen.
