Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
As the ongoing conflict in Yemen enters its tenth year, 4.5 million children in Yemen, almost half of the total school-aged population, are out of school Save the Children said on Monday.
"Today, over 4.5 million children in Yemen are out of school, constituting 39% of the country's school-age population," the organisation said in a report, adding that this figure raises serious concerns not only about the well-being and future of those children but also about the future of the entire country.
The ongoing conflict in Yemen began back in September 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Saana.
Ever since, the humanitarian crisis within the country has been progressively worsening, with millions of people facing displacement and hunger.
Displaced children are twice as likely to drop out of school in comparison to children in the host community, with dropout rates of 58% and 27% respectively, the report revealed.
Today, over half of the country's population is in desperate need of aid, with an estimated 17.8 million people requiring health assistance, 50% of whom are children, according to the World Health Organisation.
"It's almost as if ongoing conflicts have become an accepted part of the everyday realities of life in the region. It's important to step back and remember that hungry children, disease outbreaks, hospitals shutting down… these are not to be normalised," said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean in a statement posted on Monday.
Children are particularly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, measles, pertussis and diphtheria, while also suffering from alarmingly high malnutrition rates, further stunting their education journey. Due to the loss of education and the worsening economic situation, many of them are being forced to join the Houthis' ranks.
Since the start of the conflict, the group has recruited thousands of children, with the UN verifying at least 1,851 individual cases of child recruitment or use by the Houthis since 2010. In a separate estimate, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties reported over 10,000 recruitment cases between 2014 and 2021.
Moreover, due to the lack of resources, parents started resorting to "harmful coping mechanisms", such as withdrawing children from school and exposing them to child labour and child marriage, the Save the Children report added. Child labour was the driver of 44% of school dropout cases, the organisation revealed, while in 20% of families, children juggle work and education simultaneously, amplifying the risk of dropping out.
