UNICEF welcomes UAE, Saudi funds for unpaid teachers in Yemen

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The UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, on Tuesday thanked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia for the contribution of 70 million US dollars as monthly cash stipends to teachers across Yemen.

"More than 135,000 Yemeni teachers have not received their salaries in more than two years," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a press release. "Classrooms are where children feel some semblance of normalcy in their lives and a place to prepare themselves for their future lives. The stipends will help teachers stay in classrooms."

Education has been one of the biggest casualties of the war in Yemen, said Fore, who visited Yemen in June this year. "We urge the warring parties to end this conflict and allow children to resume their childhood. Peace is the only solution."

Yemen has been in a civil war in the past three years, pitting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that tries to reinstate the Hadi government.

(Cover: File photo of Yemeni students attending a class on the first day of the new school year in the capital Sanaa, October 15, 2017. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency