Saudi Arabia has killed hundreds of Yemeni kids. Will Saudi blood money keep it off the UN list of child killers - again?

"A Saudi-led military coalition conducting airstrikes in Yemen committed 'grave violations' of human rights against children last year, killing 502, injuring 838, according to a draft report by the U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.

'The killing and maiming of children remained the most prevalent violation' of children's rights in Yemen, according to the 41-page draft report obtained by Foreign Policy. 'In the reporting period, attacks carried out by air were the cause of over half of all child casualties, with at least 349 children killed and 333 children injured.'...

The chief author of the confidential draft report, Virginia Gamba, the U.N. chief's special representative for children abused in war time, informed top U.N. officials Monday, that she intends to recommend the Saudi-led coalition be added to a list a countries and entities that kill and maim children, according to a well-placed source. The decision will have to be taken by Guterres, who will make the final report public later this month...

The findings were included in a draft copy of the U.N.'s annual report of Children and Armed Conflict, which documented human rights violations of at least 15,500 children last year by government forces, terrorists and armed opposition groups in more than a dozen conflicts around the world...

The publication of the report, which is expected to be issued later this month, presents Guterres with a tough dilemma: if he shames the Saudi coalition he runs the risk of provoking a break with the U.N.'s most influential Arab governments. But if he doesn't act, he is likely to face charges of undermining the U.N.'s commitment to human rights...

Last year, Saudi Arabia was included on the list on the grounds that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for more than half of the 1,953 child casualties in the Yemen conflict.

In response, Saudi Arabia threatened to stage a walk-out by Arab countries from the U.N. and slash hundreds of millions in aid to the international body's anti-poverty programs unless the coalition was removed from a U.N. rogues list. Then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reluctantly agreed to temporarily delist the coalition, citing concerns that the loss of Persian Gulf money could imperil the lives of millions of needy children from South Sudan to Yemen..."