Yemen War Kills 50,000 Children Every Year

By Staff, Agencies

Yemen’s Ansaruallh revolutionary movement raised the voice that the years-long Saudi-led war and blockade on the impoverished Arab country has increased the infant mortality rate alarmingly.

The Ansarullah said Thursday the ongoing Saudi military aggression against Yemen has fueled famine, poverty and diseases, resulting in the deaths of 50,000 children annually, many of whom are under a month old.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a deadly military aggression against Yemen in an attempt to reinstall a Riyadh-backed former regime and eliminate the movement, which has been defending the country along with the armed forces.

The Western-backed offensive, coupled with a naval blockade, has destroyed the country’s infrastructure.

It has also led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen, with many children suffering from cholera and severe malnutrition.

Children are among the most vulnerable victims of Saudi imposed war on Yemen. The issue has barely drawn any international response despite numerous reports about child deaths. 

Back in February last year, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said tens of thousands of children under the age of five have died of starvation in Yemen ever since Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies launched an atrocious military aggression against the impoverished country.

Also in November, Yemeni Minister of Public Health and Population Taha al-Mutawakel, announced that every 10 minutes, a child under the age of five died from extreme hunger in the war-ravaged country.

Separately on Thursday, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Sanaa, Saif al-Hadri, criticized the inaction of international community on Yemen’s crisis, saying none of the leading global powers has taken any serious initiative to force Saudi Arabia to lift its economic siege and work towards bringing the war to its end.

He described the situation of Yemen's children as "disastrous in the shadow of war", pointing out that "approximately five and a half million children under the age of five are suffering from malnutrition".

He went on to say "one child dies every ten minutes in Yemen", adding that "80 percent of children in Yemen live in a state of stunting and anemia due to malnutrition."

“Two hundred thousand women of childbearing age or some of them are pregnant or have given birth to malnourished children, which threatens the lives of children," he added.

The Saudi aggression has displaced millions and left 24.1 million -- more than two-thirds of the Yemeni population -- in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project [ACLED], a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000 lives over the past four and a half years.