UNICEF raises eyebrows with praise for Saudi ‘humanitarian’ role in Yemen

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has in a controversial move praised what it called Saudi Arabia’s “humanitarian” role in Yemen, closing its eyes to years of atrocities committed by Riyadh and its allies against the civilian population there, leaving a large number of children dead, maimed and malnourished.

Executive Director of the world body Henrietta Fore, in a letter sent to the so-called King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), lauded Saudi Arabia over what she described as the kingdom's “generous support” for the projects of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan in Yemen 2020.

Fore went on to say that UNICEF will use the financial support to help Yemeni children and their families in different fields, including health, nutrition, water, sanitation and education.

Nearly 3,500 Yemeni children killed in Saudi airstrikes since 2015: Rights group

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

The UNICEF’s praise for Saudi Arabia follows a decision by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 15 to remove the Saudi-led coalition engaged in an atrocious military campaign against Yemen from a blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in the impoverished country.

The move prompted immediate protests from human rights groups worldwide.

Jo Becker, the advocacy director of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, argued at the time that Guterres was “adding a new level of shame to his list of shame by removing the Saudi-led coalition and ignoring the UN's own evidence of continued grave violations against children.”

Adrianne Lapar, director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, also said by removing the Saudi-led coalition “the secretary-general sends the message that powerful actors can get away with killing children.”

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Journalists examine traces of “war crime” at the scene of a recent massacre of nine civilians, including six children, by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

“Delisting Saudi Arabia from the annual UN report confirms the chaos in the world body and its disregard for humanitarian standards,” Mohammed Ali al-

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power.

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The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, warns that the shortage of humanitarian assistance amid the coronavirus pandemic threatens to push more children in Yemen to the brink of starvation.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives in the past five years.

The popular Houthi movement, backed by the armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling their objectives.

50,000 children die every year in Yemen: Ansarullah

The Ansaruallh movement says the years-long Saudi-led war and blockade against Yemen has fueled famine and disease, resulting in the deaths of 50,000 children annually.

The Saudi war has also resulted in what the world body has described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

At least 80 percent of the 28-million-strong population is also reliant on aid to survive in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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