UNICEF on Thursday warned that a surge in violence across Yemen has resulted in the forced displacement of more than 57,000 children, exacerbating an already severe humanitarian crisis driven by a decade-long civil war, economic collapse, climate shocks, and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse.

Highlighting the dire circumstances that these children are in, Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa stated:

Children in Yemen were already living through one of the world’s most grave humanitarian crises, and many have known little but conflict and displacement…Now, tens of thousands of families have been forced from their homes in just two weeks, many fleeing only with what they can carry. For children who have already endured years of hunger, displacement and disrupted schooling, this latest violence is eroding what little stability they had left.

Since early September, the organization reported that at least nine children have lost their lives, twelve have been injured, and three still remain missing, consistent with its earlier findings illustrating that 11,500 children have been either killed or wounded since the early days of the conflict in 2015. UNICEF pointed out that children living in Yemen face a multitude of challenges, reporting that 26 healthcare facilities supported by the organization have been disrupted, while 243 schools have either closed or offered only limited learning, which has affected the learning progress of at least 137,000 students.

The agency has reaffirmed its commitment to providing assistance to children and families during this trying time by supplying urgent sanitation support, hygiene kits and water tanks. However, it also noted that as the violence intensifies, scores of children fled across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into Djibouti. UNHCR stated that this journey exposes these children to newfound risks such as being exploited by human traffickers, contracting communicable illnesses such as scabies from the overcrowding at local settlements, potential drowning at sea due to the unreliable nature of boats, and separation from their family.

Many of these children never make it safely to Djibouti due to developing heat stroke as a result of the extreme air temperatures which can soar up to 122°F during the summer months and surface water temperatures that average above 68°F annually.

In February 2012, mass demonstrations erupted across Yemen after citizens were unhappy over the severe wealth inequality and political longevity of then President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritarian regime. This ultimately led to him stepping down, allowing the Vice President to start implementing reforms. However, the Houthis, an already marginalized Zaydi Shia minority group in Yemen, who had already fought six wars against the government from 2004-2010 felt left out of the transitional process, leading to them launching an attack that resulted in an internal civil war in September 2014.

The growing domestic unrest erupted into a full-scale regional war on the 21st of March 2015 after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened to restore the internationally recognized government. Human Rights Watch has previously condemned Houthi rebels for recruiting child soldiers to fight in the war, which violates international humanitarian law, particularly Article 77 of Additional Protocol I and Article 38 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).