Yemeni kids raising funds for UN after Saudis threaten halting aid
Yemeni children have launched a fundraising campaign for the UN after Saudi Arabia threatened to halt financial aid to the world body over a spat concerning a blacklist for the killing of children in the impoverished country.
In a series of photos posted on social media, the Yemeni kids can be seen placing coins and cash on top of a large UN flag outside the global body’s office in the country's capital Sana’a.
The campaign is reportedly being spearheaded by the capital’s mayor, and follows UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s removal of the kingdom from the blacklist following his acceptance of “a proposal by Saudi Arabia that the United Nations and the Saudi-led coalition review jointly the cases and numbers” cited in the Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) report.
The UN blacklisted Saudi Arabia in the report released earlier this month, saying the monarchy was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 deaths of children in Yemen last year.
Following the U-turn by the UN, Ban admitted that the Saudis were temporarily removed from the list after they administered “undue pressure” on the world body by threatening to cut off funding to humanitarian programs.
Meanwhile, a Yemeni child has penned a letter to Ban asking him not to be afraid of Saudi Arabia.
"Don't be afraid of Saudi Arabia because it is massacring the Yemenis not the UN… I'm not writing my name because Saudi Arabia kills me, and I don't like the death," reads the letter.
"My friends and have agreed to collect money to fund the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), because Saudi Arabia has said it would cut its aids to it," the child wrote.
Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26, 2015, in a bid to reinstate resigned President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
More than 9,400 people have been killed and at least 16,000 others injured in the Saudi aggression.
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