ReliefWeb

Highlights

• The 26 March 2018 saw the third anniversary of the Yemen conflict, which continues to heavily impact the lives of children. As fighting continued this month, 16 children were reportedly killed and 39 were injured.

• UNICEF launched a report highlighting the negative effects of conflict on children's education. It also appealed to warring parties to put an end to the war and all grave violations against children.

• An Integrated Response, Preparedness and Prevention Plan for Acute Watery Diarreah/Cholera is now in place, and thanks to UNICEF support, a total of 736 WASH Rapid Response Teams, with nationwide coverage, are now on stand-by to respond to a potential outbreak in the coming months.

• This month, UNICEF supported a six-day diphtheria campaign in 39 high- risk districts where it. It reached over 1.9 million children, covering 75 per cent of the target.

• UNICEF provided psychosocial support to at least 12,011 people in March, including 6,123 children, through community based and mobile child friendly spaces in 9 governorates.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

Despite attempts by the new UN envoy, Martin Griffiths, to renew stagnated peace talks, fighting continued throughout March. Marking the third anniversary of the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention in Yemen, the Houthis fired a set of ballistic missiles towards cities in Saudi Arabia, where at least one person was reportedly killed by shrapnel in Riyadh. In Sana'a, the most affected governorate by active fighting, airstrikes intensified in the city and ground clashes continued along the Nihm frontline northeast of the capital. Meanwhile in the Southern governorates and the city of Aden, violent crime and assassinations are on the increase, with several attacks carried-out by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killing and injuring security forces and civilians.

Children continue to bear the heaviest toll of the conflict. 16 children were killed and 38 injured during March, bringing the cumulative totals for 2018 up to a 110 and 192 respectively.1 The conflict also continues to heavily impact children's right to an education. Many teachers' salaries remain unpaid (61 per cent) and over three years of conflict is now compromising the education of over 4.5 million children. Whilst no data available concerning the attendance of teachers, it is reported than in some school's teachers work only a few hours a day, and in others, parents are grouping together to collect fees for teachers.

The consequences of this has a varying impact across the country. The cumulative total of suspected cholera cases reported since April 2017 to 31 March 2018 is 1,085,305 with 2,270 associated deaths across the country.2 Children under 5 years old represent 28.8 per cent of total suspected cases, but the number of weekly new cases continues to decline for the 29th consecutive week. As of the end of the reporting month, the total number of reported probable diphtheria cases has now reached 1,522 (a 25 per cent increase from the previous month) with 85 deaths (a 10 per cent increase) and a case fatality rate of 5.5 per cent.