According to medical sources "they were playing" outside their home when they were hit by the explosion. At the moment there are no further details on those responsible. Eight children die every day. UK Foreign minister warns: the peace plan "dead within a few weeks".
Sana'a (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least five children have died in an attack on their home in the province of Hudaydah, Yemen, confirming the fragility of the truce reached by the government and rebels in the port city. According to medical sources, relaunched by UNICEF, the small children "were playing near their home" when they were hit by an explosion that killed them.
At the moment there are no further details on the nature of the attack or those responsible. According to the executive director of Unicef Henrietta Fore "every day at least eight children are killed or injured in the 31 areas of the country where conflicts are taking place".
Medical sources in the Tuhayta district, in the southern sector of Hudaydah, refer to the transfer of the dead and injured children to the Khokha government hospital. A devastating humanitarian tragedy is taking place in the area which has been the epicenter of the conflict. The withdrawal from Hudaydah was first achieved on 18 December, during the peace talks in Sweden. The first phase of the withdrawal should have started two weeks later, but neither side kept their commitment.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, on a mission to Yemen, has raised the alarm for the possible failure of the peace agreement in the port city. The plan, says the diplomat, "could be dead within a few weeks". The Yemeni government, supported by the Arab countries and recognized by the international community, and the Houthi Shiite rebels close to Iran still have to apply the points envisaged by the ceasefire, which include the redeployment of troops outside the city.
Since March 2015 to date, this conflict has left an estimated 10 thousand dead and 55 thousand injured. Independent bodies set the toll (between January 2016 and end of July 2018) at about 50 thousand deaths. Since it only concerns the combatants, not the "indirect victims" (civilians) who have died from malnutrition or cholera.
Among the first victims there are children, who have died as a result of bombs or very serious malnutrition: at least 85,000 children under the age of five, according to various international humanitarian agencies. Recently UN experts have said that at least 14 million people are at risk of starvation.