UNICEF condemns latest Saudi-led airstrike on Yemeni children

The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has denounced a recent Saudi deadly airstrike in Yemen’s Hudaydah province that killed over two dozen children.

The carnage took place in Durayhimi city on Thursday, when a Saudi-led strike hit a civilian vehicle, killing 31 people, mostly children. The attack came about two weeks after a Saudi-led warplane hit a school bus in the northern province of Sa’ada with a 227-kilogram laser-guided Mark 82 bomb, killing a total of 51 people, including 40 children, and leaving nearly 80 others wounded. 

“I had hoped that the outrage that followed the Sa’ada attack in Yemen two weeks ago would be a turning point in the conflict. Yesterday’s reported attacks in Durayhimi, killing 26 children, indicate that it was not,” said Henrietta Fore, the UNICEF executive director, in a statement on Friday.

“I – once again – call for the warring parties, those who have influence over them, the UN Security Council and the international community to take action and end this conflict once and for all,” she further said, adding that the lives of thousands of “vulnerable children” all over the war-torn country “must be a priority for all.”

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, which plays a significant role in aiding the Yemeni army in defending the impoverished country against the invading coalition, condemned the Thursday attack, saying the blood of children was spilled again before that of those killed in the bus attack dried.

SS