United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appeals for USD 542 million of unconditional contributions to continue responding to the massive needs of children in Yemen in 2019 and urges a large-scale re-investment in Yemen to help Yemeni children have a future every parent across the globe aspires to for their own children.
In Yemen today, nearly 1.2 million children continue to live in 31 active conflict zones including Hudaydah, Taizz, Hajjah and Sa’da – in areas witnessing heavy, war-related violence.
Even after a ceasefire agreement was signed between the Yemeni warring parties in Stockholm on 13 December 2018, every day in Yemen eight children have been killed or injured. Most of the children killed were playing outdoors with their friends or were on their way to or from school.
The impact of the conflict in Yemen runs deep and has not spared a single child. Extreme violence over the past four years, high levels of poverty; and decades of conflicts, neglect and deprivation are putting a heavy strain on Yemeni society, tearing apart its social fabric – fundamental for any society and especially for children.
Together with the World Bank, UNICEF is providing 1.5 million of the country’s poorest families with emergency cash assistance – a means to help them avoid extreme survival measures like child labour, marriage or recruitment. In 2018 alone, UNICEF provided treatment to over 345,000 severely malnourished children while nearly 800,000 children received psycho-social support to help them overcome traumas they have endured.
UNICEF calls on all warring parties to put an end to violence in hotspots and across all of Yemen, protect civilians, keep children out of harm’s way and allow humanitarian deliveries to children and their families wherever they are in the country~UNICEF
