In
Yemen, 400
Schools
Damaged &
95 Destroyed
by Airstrikes
& Shelling:
UNICEF
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 18 --
While the UN's
envoy on Yemen
has been
reticent to
speak of the
impact of the
airstrikes of
the Saudi-led
coalition as
war crimes, a
new report
just issued by
UNICEF has
this to say:
"Nearly 400
schools have
been damaged
due to
shelling or
airstrikes
since the end
of March,
including 95
that have been
completely
destroyed."
Such attacks
on schools are
war crimes.
But this is
not heard from
the UN's
replacement
envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh
Ahmed. More
from UNICEF,
now more
generic:
“This
conflict is a
particular
tragedy for
Yemeni
children.
Children are
being killed
by bombs or
bullets and
those that
survive face
the growing
threat of
disease and
malnutrition.
This cannot be
allowed to
continue,”
UNICEF's
Representative
in Yemen
Julien Harneis
said about the
report, Yemen:
Childhood
Under Threat.
The numbers,
which in the
statement do
not ascribe
responsibility:
Yemen:
Childhood
Under Threat
outlines the
different
dimensions of
the crisis
facing
children
including at
least 398
children
killed and 605
injured as a
result since
the conflict
escalated in
March;
children
recruited or
used in the
conflict has
more than
doubled – from
156 in 2014 to
377 so far
verified in
2015; 15.2
million people
lack access to
basic health
care, with 900
health
facilities
closed since
March 26; 1.8
million
children are
likely to
suffer from
some form of
malnutrition
by the end of
the year; 20.4
million people
are in need of
assistance to
establish or
maintain
access to safe
water and
sanitation due
to fuel
shortages,
infrastructure
damage and
insecurity;
and nearly
3,600 schools
have closed
down,
affecting over
1.8 million
children."
“We
urgently need
funds so we
can reach
children in
desperate
need. We
cannot stand
by and let
children
suffer the
consequences
of a
humanitarian
catastrophe,”
UNICEF's
Harneis said.
The UN
Secretariat's
bungling of
Yemen
mediation has
become ever
more clear,
according to
multiple
sources and
documents
exclusively
seen by Inner
City Press,
see below. Now
things have
hit a new low.
The
UN-announced
"humanitarian
pause" was
entirely
ignored by the
Saudi-led
coalition,
which
continued
airstrikes
including most
recently one
killing dozens
of civilians
in Mocha.
Just
after that,
the Saudis
themselves
announced a
five day
pause. UN
envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh
Ahmed as
exposed by
Inner City
Press has been
on vacation,
as has his
deputy Gluck,
so the UN is
uninvolved in
this pause.
But, Inner
City Press
asked in a
July 25
article,
how long until
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon issues
a statement
welcoming and
implicitly
taking some
credit for the
announcement?
More than 24
hours after
that, Ban did
in fact issue
a statement,
welcoming the
Saudi
announcement -
already being
violated -
while
referring only
obliquely to
"reports of
civilian
deaths in
Mokha on
Friday
evening." But
who might have
caused those,
more than 48
hours earlier?
, 
