(MPN) The
U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen has devastated the civilian
population, and poverty, disease, and starvation are taking a heavy toll
on the country’s children.
The Yemeni struggled for years with poverty and a lack of quality
health care even before the war began, but the conflict has driven the
nation to the verge of total collapse and pushed child mortality rates
way up.
“Now, the situation is much worse and an estimated 1,000 children are
dying every week from preventable killers like diarrhoea, malnutrition
and respiratory tract infections,” said Edward Santiago, Yemen director for the NGO Save the Children.
At least 1,219 children have died as a direct result of the war in
Yemen, but a desperate lack of medical supplies, bombed-out hospitals,
and missing or dead medical staff are likely to cause an additional
10,000 preventable deaths each year, according to “Struggling to Survive: Stories from Yemen’s collapsing health system,” a briefing published on Dec. 19 by Save the Children International.
