Nearly 1,200 children killed or injured in Yemen despite truce: NGO

Save the Children says nearly one in two child casualties are due to landmines and explosive remnants of war.Shelling, gunfire, landmines and other explosive remnants of war have killed or injured nearly 1,200 children in Yemen, Save the Children has found, despite a United Nations-led ceasefire four years ago largely reducing hostilities.Since the truce brokered on April 2, 2022, at least 339 children have been killed and 843 injured, some in life-altering ways, the United Kingdom-based humanitarian organisation said in an analysis of data from the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP) released on Thursday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Yemen’s Houthis enter Iran war as bloodshed mounts daily across regionlist 2 of 3Pentagon readies ‘for weeks of US ground operations’ in Iranlist 3 of 3Pakistan maintains ‘delicate balancing act’ as it hosts Iran talksend of listThe organisation also found that 511 – nearly one in two – child casualties were due to landmines and explosive remnants of war.The data collected by CIMP, a monitoring mechanism under the UN-protection-cluster" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="93977" data-entity-type="organization">UN Protection Cluster, suggested that children were more than three times more likely than adults to be killed or injured by explosive remnants.While civilian casualties have decreased overall since the truce largely halted fighting between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthis, the percentage of children killed or injured due to landmines or unexploded ordnance has been much higher than in the four years prior.Save the Children attributed this to a lack of mine risk awareness and increased exposure due to child labour.“These figures are a reminder that beyond the front lines, the war on children continues in their homes, schools and areas where they play and help their families tend to land,” Rishana Haniffa, the organisation’s country director in Yemen, said in a statement.