Yemen children caught in war in dire need of aid — UN

DUBAI — More than 11 million Yemeni children need humanitarian aid as a result of a war raging since March 2015, the UN's humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said on Monday.

A Saudi-led Arab military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

OCHA, which described the conflict as "devastating" said children are facing "the largest food security crisis in the world and an unprecedented cholera outbreak".

"Deprived of access to basic health and nutrition services, children are unable to fulfil their potential," it said in a statement.

Children in Yemen are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhoea, and respiratory tract infections", it said.

"The education system is on the brink of collapse, with more than five million children at risk of being deprived of their right to education."

 The United Nations has listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with seven million people on the brink of famine and a cholera outbreak that has caused more than 2,000 deaths.

More than 8,650 people have been killed in the conflict and around 58,600 others wounded, many of them civilians, according to the World Health Organisation.