At least 115 children have been killed and 172 maimed in the violence raging in Yemen since Saudi-led air raids began on March 26, the UN children’s agency said Friday.
“We believe that these are conservative figures,” UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva, saying at least 64 of the children killed between March 26 and April 20 were victims of air strikes.
The UN agency said another 26 children had been killed by unexploded ordnance and mines, 19 by gunshots, three by shelling and three by “unverified causes related to the conflict”.
Seventy-one of the children died in the north of the country, UNICEF said.
Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-US coalition. Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday night, Saudi Arabia declared the end of the aggression, dubbed “Decisive Strom”. However, the Saudi-led warplanes are still conducting airstrikes on several areas across Yemen.
The World Health Organization said Thursday the overall death toll in Yemen had topped 1,000, and the UN’s human rights agency said Friday at least 551 of the people who died were civilians.
But media reports put the death toll of the attack at least 2000.
AFP
