UNICEF: 10 Thousand Children Killed or Maimed in Yemen since 2015

According to UNICEF, ten thousand Yemeni children have been murdered or injured since a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi militia overthrew the government.

“The Yemen conflict has just hit another shameful milestone. We now have 10,000 children who have been killed or maimed since March 2015,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told a UN briefing in Geneva after returning from a visit to Yemen.

“That is the equivalent of four children every single day,” Elder said, adding that many more child deaths or injuries went unreported.

In Yemen, four out of every five children - a total of 11 million - require humanitarian assistance, while 400,000 are malnourished and more than 2 million are out of school, according to Elder.

Efforts sponsored by the United Nations to establish a nationwide truce have stagnated as both Saudi Arabia and the Houthis refuse to compromise in order to end a war that has lasted more than six years and resulted in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

Residents and a local official stated last week that hundreds of Yemenis are stranded in the northern Marib governorate due to severe fighting between the government and Houthi forces, following clashes for control of the gas-rich region that displaced 10,000 people.