UN Condemns Killing Hundreds of Children in Yemen
A UN report condemned the Saudi alliance and their ally, the UAE, and the parties to the Yemeni conflict by killing hundreds of children and keeping them on a black list of violators of children’s rights.
The UN report documented the killing and maiming of 1,689 children last year in Yemen, where Saudi has been waging a criminal war for more than four years.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterich gave the UN Security Council its annual report on states and armed groups that violate the rights of children in conflict areas.
Guterich put the alliance led by Saudi in Yemen, on the black list of countries and groups violating children’s rights.
The report also kept the security belt, Yemeni government forces, the Houthi group, the Popular Committees and al-Qaeda on this black list.
According to the report, the United Nations has verified the killing and maiming of 1,689 children in Yemen over the past year and the Saudi-led coalition is responsible for killing 720 children, most of them because of air strikes.
The United Nations also noted the responsibility of the Houthis for the deaths of 398 victims.
On July 3, a number of senators sent a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to explain his decision to exclude Saudi Arabia from the list of countries known to recruit children in the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The senators said the exclusion came at a time when Saudi Arabia had been blacklisted for countries that failed to address human trafficking and appeared to run counter to what was set out in the 2008 Prevention of Child Recruitment Act.
They added that the Office for Monitoring and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings had included information on the reported Saudi recruitment of children and that it may have funded Yemeni militias that in some cases may have used minors to fight.
The British daily Mail has provided UN information on child recruitment in Yemen after a strong and strong reaction to the report.
After publishing its report on Yemen, the newspaper received a request for information from the official team of United Nations experts on Yemen, which advises the Security Council on the conflict situation.
In April, UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, said more than 7,500 children had been killed in Yemen since the start of the al-Saud-led alliance.
