UNICEF said attacks on children in conflict zones around the world reached a shocking scale in 2017.
“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” said Manuel Fontaine, Unicef Director of Emergency Programmes, in a statement on Thursday
“As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”
“The world must not become numb to these attacks, he added, saying “such brutality cannot be the new normal.’’
Children have become frontline targets in conflicts around the world, used as human shields, killed, maimed and recruited to fight.
UNICEF said rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement have become standard tactics in conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Nigeria and Myanmar.
Millions more children become indirect casualties of these conflicts, suffering from malnutrition, disease and trauma as basic services – including access to food, water, sanitation and health – are denied, damaged or destroyed in the fighting.
The statement cited significant statistics including that in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region, violence has driven 850,000 children from their homes and an estimated 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute malnutrition.
In Yemen, nearly 1,000 days of fighting left at least 5,000 children dead or injured, according to verified data, with actual numbers expected to be much higher.
No fewer than 11 million children need humanitarian assistance.(dpa/NAN)
Leave a Reply