71,000 children displaced in Yemen in 3 weeks amid escalating conflict: UNICEF

Some 71,000 children have been forced from their homes in Yemen over the past three weeks amid escalating conflict, UNICEF said Friday, warning that hunger and displacement are putting children at growing risk, Anadolu reports.

Akhil Iyer, UNICEF’s country representative in Yemen, told reporters in Geneva that nearly 130,000 people, including 71,000 children, had been displaced during the period, with most uprooted from or within the southwestern governorate of Taiz.

“Conflict is driving hunger, and hunger makes children even more vulnerable to conflict,” Iyer said.

UNICEF in recent weeks, has screened nearly 2,900 children through mobile nutrition teams in areas where it has safe humanitarian access. More than one in four were found to be acutely malnourished, while around 200 were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

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Across Yemen, more than 2.2 million children under five are projected to experience acute malnutrition this year, including more than half a million facing severe acute malnutrition, he said.

Iyer said UNICEF had verified that at least 15 children were killed and 14 injured in the conflict since early September, while three were still reported missing.

The escalation has also disrupted education, with 243 schools closing or suspending classes over the past three weeks, affecting nearly 140,000 students.

“We cannot keep asking children to survive what they should have never been exposed to in the first place,” he said, urging parties to protect children, civilians and civilian infrastructure, uphold international humanitarian law and facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access.

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