Najeeb Al-Qubati told the Arabic-language Almasirah TV that the Saudi coalition has been blocking the import of medical equipment and medicine into the country for six years and Sanaa is unable to hire new medical staff due to the siege and the war.
This has brought about a catastrophic situation in Yemen, he said, adding, “100,000 newborns die every year in the country; that means six infants lose their lives in every two minutes.”
Al-Qubati stressed that the siege targets Yemeni children from the very embryonic period and that malnutrition is on the rise among pregnant mothers.
The Yemeni deputy health minister called the closure of Sanaa International Airport dangerous for the needy in the country and urged the United Nations to provide flights through this airport to save the lives of Yemeni patients.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched their devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring ousted president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.
Riyadh and its allies have widely been criticized for the high civilian death toll as a result of their bombing campaign in Yemen.
Yemen’s Foreign Ministry, citing figures compiled by the United Nations, said in November that there are about 12.2 million children in Yemen in dire need of humanitarian aid, more than five million children under the age of five who suffer from malnutrition, about 1.71 million displaced children, and more than two million children out of school.
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