More than 1,500 children dead in two years of Yemen war, says UN

ADEN – Agence France-Presse

The conflict in Yemen has killed nearly 7,700 people, including at least 1,564 children, since a Saudi-led coalition intervened on the government’s side two years ago, U.N. agencies said March 13.

The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said that by March 10, at least 1,546 children were killed and 2,450 others maimed in Yemen.

Of those killed, 1,022 were boys and 478 were girls while 46 were of “unknown sex,” UNICEF said in a statement.

During that same period 1,801 boys and 649 girls were wounded while 1,572 boys were recruited to serve as child soldiers, said UNICEF.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led Arab coalition mounted an air campaign in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi whose authority was being challenged by Shiite Houthi rebels.

The rebels overran the capital Sanaa in September 2014 forcing Hadi to seek first refuge in the southern city of Aden and then exile in Saudi Arabia.

Loyalists backed by the Saudi-led coalition have driven the rebels out of five southern provinces which they had seized, including Aden, in the summer of 2015.  

The U.N.’s World Health Organization said the conflict has killed nearly 7,700 people and wounded more than 42,550 since the coalition intervened.