Conflict-torn Yemen - the Worse Place on Earth to be a Child

War is hell. It is a discriminatory act of violence perpetrated supposedly against an enemy, but often, its victims are meek innocents - many children, caught up in an egotistic battle between opposing sides for influence over the people.

Since 2015, the children of Yemen have become such targets. A conflict complicated by the involvement of a Saudi coalition against Houthi rebels, has decimated normalcy of life for the people of Yemen. The suffering effects of conflict have killed some 8, 000 people. And sadly, today, 11 million Yemeni children are in dire need of help with 400,000 of them facing death from malnutrition.

The state of affairs in Yemen has fallen farther into to despair since the Saudi coalition placed an embargo on the poor nation of 28 million. 

The welfare of children in Yemen has reached such a critical mass that UNICEF's Middle East director, Geert Cappelaere, has deemed Yemen as the worse place on Earth to be a child. 

Speaking to journalists in Amman, Jordan, last Sunday, Cappelaere confirmed: "More than 11 million children are today in acute need of humanitarian assistance. That's almost every single Yemeni boy and girl." He pleaded: "To all parties and all those with a heart for children, please take your responsibility now."

Cappelaere was not only calling for an end to the conflict, he also hoped for greater access of humanitarian assistance to the children and people of Yemen. Negotiations with the Saudi coalition has allowed for close to two million doses of vaccines to enter into Yemen along with some critical aid workers. Yet, Cappelaere has sought for the continuous effort to allow for the entry of food, chlorine tablets for drinking water and treatments for diarrhea and cholera to be allowed into Yemen.

Therefore, for the sake of millions of children cut off from their childhoods and in need of humanitarian care, all parties to the conflict in Yemen should lower their guns and swords and do whatever is necessary to ameliorate the lives of all Yemenis.