Local Editor
UNICEF reported that the fighting in and around Yemen’s port city of Hodeida has prevented more than 60,000 children from going to school.
“More than 60,000 boys and girls are out of school because of the fighting in and around the port city of Hodeida in Yemen. The violence has forced over a third of all schools there to close, with 15 located on the frontline and others badly damaged or being used as shelters for displaced families,” Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF’s Representative in Yemen, said in a statement.
Relaño added that “only one in three students is able to continue their education and less than a quarter of all teachers are present in school” in the worst affected areas of Hodeida.
The UN official urged the Yemeni authorities to work together to find a solution for paying teachers’ and other civil servants’ salaries, adding “above all, the war on children in Yemen must stop.”
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement.
Official UN figures say that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began in March 2015. But the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) believes that at least 56,000 people have lost their lives in the war. The violence has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid amid an ongoing strict naval and aerial blockade. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
