Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-01-2018

As the brutal conflict in Yemen nears its grim third anniversary, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) says malnutrition and disease are running rampant in the country and virtually every child there is dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.

Since the escalation of violence in March 2015, when conflict broke out between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement, Yemen, already the poorest in the region, has been left on the verge of a humanitarian collapse.

Hospitals, medical facilities as well as water and sanitation systems have been rendered inoperable across large parts of the country, and humanitarian assistance is the lifeline for over three-fourths of the country’s population.

Unicef’s Meritxell Relano says an entire generation of children in Yemen is growing up knowing nothing but violence.

“Malnutrition and disease are rampant as basic services collapse. Those who survive are likely to carry the physical and psychological scars of conflict for the rest of their lives.”

This dire situation in Yemen, has perhaps had the worst impact on the three million children born in country since the conflict erupted.

In its latest report, Born into War – 1,000 Days of Lost Childhood, UNICEF notes that 30 per cent of that number were born premature, another 30 percent had low birth weight and 25,000 died at birth or within the first month of life.