War on Yemen: Children Lives Don’t Matter to Saudis

Rasa - The rising death toll of children in Saudi-led war on Yemen is generating strong messages of condemnation from international institutions and human rights organisations – with the United Nations remaining helpless as killings keep multiplying.

News ID: 422719

Date: 15 August 2016 - 23:18

RNA - On Saturday, August 13, for instance, 10 were killed and 28 other children were wounded when a Saudi airstrike struck a school in northern Yemen. Medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders says all the casualties were 8-15 years old, and that the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition was responsible for the attack.

The House of Saud and its partners in crime, which have launched thousands of deadly airstrikes against Yemen since March 2015, deny targeting the school in question! They claim the site bombed was "a major training camp for militia," adding that the death toll as recorded by MSF "confirms the Houthi practice of recruiting and subjecting children to terror."

This is rubbish. With the intensification in violence in the past week alone, the number of children killed and injured by Saudi airstrikes has grown sharply almost by the hour. Across the country, nearly 10 million children – 80 percent of the country’s under-18 population – are still in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. More than 1.3 million people have also been forced to flee their homes.

The 1949 Geneva Convention, which governs the basic rules of war, has also continued to be violated by the greatest offenders in the conflict.  Even UNICEF agrees. In a new report on children in conflict zones the organisation says one of the worst cases is Yemen where an average of eight children are being killed or maimed almost every day.

Under the circumstances, what is not in dispute is that as per the UN Charter there is a moral imperative and a legal obligation on the part of Saudi Arabia and cohorts to protect children. They should never jeopardize, much less murder, children for national interests and regional politics. Also under International Law, the airstrikes amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the offensive has no international legitimacy.

That said, the conflict in Yemen is still a particular tragedy for children. Children are being killed by Saudi bombs and those that survive face the growing threat of disease and malnutrition. As devastating as the conflict is for the lives of children right now, it will have terrifying consequences for their future as well.

This cannot be allowed to continue. This is an important issue and it should receive great attention by the media as well. Together with the international civil society, they should force the warmongers to stop bombing schools and come to terms with accountability for the devastating loss of children lives at their hands. Equally, they should call on the UN to abandon its politics of shame and review the Saudi war crimes and act on it, which has received international attention and condemnation in recent days.

It’s tragic to hear that since March 2015 there has never been any UN resolution against Saudi Arabia, and certainly no international prosecution of one of thousands of children and civilian murders at the hands of Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The worst offenders in the Middle East have a lot of explaining to do in such tribunals. So far, they have refused to come clean, which only implies one thing: They have no intention to stop murdering children, much less come to terms with accountability.

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