Yemen’s Children Bear the Brunt of War as Hundreds of Schools Remain Closed

Local Editor

More than 850 children have been killed and 1200 injured in Yemen. Hundreds have been used as child soldiers. Many have been subjected to abuse and violence.

Schools have been attacked and huge numbers of children bear the mental scars of living through bombings, killings and fleeing from their homes.

Arwa, 8-years old who lives in a war zone, all what she wants to do is go back to school. She is one of the millions of children who have been affected by the conflict in Yemen, which erupted just over a year ago.

Children are bearing the brunt of the war in Yemen, and reports from "Save The Children" and the United Nations children's agency UNICEF demonstrate the extent of their suffering.

Relatively, the UNICEF said: "After the escalation of the conflict and the closure of nearly 3600 schools, over 1.8 million school-aged children were forced out of school, bringing the school-age population out of school to 3.4 million - half of the total school-age children."

"Although schools reopened in November 2015, over 1600 remain closed due to insecurity, infrastructural damages or use as shelters by displaced people, mainly in al-Jawf, Sa'ada and Ta'az governorates."

There have been more than 50 direct attacks on schools and teachers and about 50 schools have been occupied by fighters, UNICEF added.

"Children are not safe anywhere in Yemen. Even playing or sleeping has become dangerous," noted UNICEF representative in Yemen, Julien Harneis.

The agency said children as young as 10 are taking up much more active roles in the fighting, such as manning checkpoints and carrying weapons.

For its part, Save The Children said schools that remain open are "often cramped and severely under-resourced, with a lack of teachers, books and furniture, with reports of children sitting on the floor in overcrowded classrooms."

In a similar context, Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, Edward Santiago, said: "An entire generation of children - the future of Yemen - is being abandoned to their fate.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team