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UNICEF calls for urgent help for 10 million Yemeni children

Thursday, 14 January 2016 10:01 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 14 January 2016 10:31 AM ]

This AFP file photo shows displaced Yemeni children after their houses were destroyed by Saudi airstrikes in Sana'a, April 29, 2015.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns that millions of Yemeni children are in need of urgent help, amid the Saudi-led war on the impoverished country.

“With no end in sight to the deadly conflict in Yemen, nearly 10 million children inside the country are now facing a new year of pain and suffering,” Julien Harneis, the UNICEF representative in Yemen, said in a statement.

Harneis said the “continuous bombardment and street fighting are exposing children and their families to a deadly combination of violence, disease and deprivation.”

This AFP file photo shows displaced Yemeni children in the capital, Sana'a.

More than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 others injured since Saudi airstrikes began in Yemen in March 2015. The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure.

Harneis further suggested that “what is really needed-- above all else -- is an end to the conflict."

"Only in that way can the children of Yemen look forward to 2016 with hope rather than despair.”

According to the UN body, children make up at least half of the 2.3 million people estimated to have been displaced from their homes.

More than 19 million people struggle to get water on a daily basis; 1.3 million children under five face the risk of acute malnutrition and acute respiratory tract infections.

And at least two million children cannot go to school, UNICEF estimated.

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