Nearly a decade into Yemen’s brutal war, some 4.5 million of its children are not attending school, the charity Save the Children reported Monday.
The figure underlines how precarious daily life remains in Yemen, despite relative calm since an April 2022 ceasefire.
“Two in five children, or 4.5 million, are out of school, with displaced children twice as likely to drop out than their peers,” the group report mentioned.
It added “One third of families surveyed in Yemen have at least one child who has dropped out of school in the past two years despite the UN-brokered truce,”.
Economic insecurity amid the war has plunged two thirds of Yemen’s 33 million inhabitants below the poverty line, the charity reported , while also displacing about 4.5 million people.
“Displaced children are twice as vulnerable to school dropouts,” Save the Children noticed.
“Nine years into this forgotten conflict, we are confronting an education emergency like never before,” said Mohammed Manna, Save the Children’s interim country director in Yemen.
“Our latest findings must be a wake-up call and we must act now to protect these children and their future.”
“The impact of the education crisis on Yemen’s children and their future is profound, and without immediate intervention, an entire generation risks being left behind.” ” the charity report concluded