Yemen: Children hit hardest by northern conflict

Hundreds of children have either been killed or used as child soldiers in fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels in the north of the country since August 2009, according to a new report by Seyaj Organization for Child Protection (SOCP), a local child rights NGO. The 22 February report said some 89,000 children were forced to flee their homes with their families, whilst "187 children were killed, 402 exploited as soldiers by Houthis, and another 282 recruited by pro-government local militias." The findings are based on an SOCP survey in December 2009 - with support from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) - of children in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Hajja, Saada and Amran governorates, as well as in some of Saada's conflict-ridden districts: Saada city, Razeh, Alb, Baqem, Ghamr and Qataber. According to the report, 42 percent of children in camps (estimated at 35,000) are affected by malnutrition, 19 percent have diarrhea, 25 percent have respiratory infections, and 3 percent malaria. SOCP conducted interviews with 684 former child soldiers and collected information on a total of 73,926 children for the survey. Aid agencies say more than 70 percent of the estimated 250,000 people displaced by the conflict since 2004 live outside IDP camps, with children making up over half of the displaced population.