The
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has
warned that more than 11 million Yemeni children are in dire need of
relief aid as a result of Saudi Arabia’s aggression against the
impoverished country.
In a
statement published on Monday, the agency described the conflict in
Yemen as “devastating,” and said the Yemeni children were facing
“the largest food security crisis in the world and an
unprecedented cholera outbreak.”
"Deprived
of access to basic health and nutrition services, children are unable
to fulfill their potential," the statement said, adding that
children in the war-ravaged country were dying of "preventable
causes like malnutrition, diarrhea, and respiratory tract
infections.”
The OCHA
also pointed to the uncertain future of millions of schoolchildren in
Yemen as thousands of teachers refuse to attend classes for not
receiving their salaries during the past year.
"The
education system is on the brink of collapse, with more than five
million children at risk of being deprived of their right to
education," the OCHA said.
Since
March 2015, Yemen has been under heavy airstrikes by Saudi Arabia’s
warplanes as part of a brutal war against the Arabian Peninsula
country in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement
and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch
ally of Riyadh.
More
than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign
and much of the country’s infrastructure, including hospitals,
schools and factories, has been ravaged.
The
Saudi war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.
According
to data provided by the World Health Organization and Yemen’s
Health Ministry, the country’s cholera outbreak, the worst on
record in terms of its rapid spread, has infected 612,703 people and
killed 2,048 since it began in April, with some districts still
reporting sharp rises in new cases.
The
United Nations also says the Saudi war has left some 17 million
Yemenis hungry, nearly seven million facing famine, and about 16
million almost without access to water or sanitation.
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