More children than ever before are estimated to be living in conflict zones or forcibly displaced, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Saturday.
UNICEF estimated that more than 473 million children worldwide — one in six — live in areas affected by conflict.
This has led to a record number of children being killed, injured or having their rights violated.
“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF’s history — both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“A child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home — too often repeatedly — compared to a child living in places of peace.”
Where are children suffering due to wars?
The UN verified 32,990 grave rights violations against 22,557 children in 2023 and expects the figure to be even higher for 2024.
UNICEF said thousands of Palestinian children had been killed in Gaza this year amid Israel’s continued bombardment of the enclave. Israel says it is fighting the militant group Hamas there.
In Ukraine, the UN verified more child casualties in the first nine months of 2024 than during all of 2023.
The agency also said that in Haiti, there had been a 1,000% increase in reported incidents of sexual violence against children this year.
In Sudan, as in Gaza, a significant portion of children have missed out on more than a year of school.
Children are also missing out on vital vaccinations and are being deprived of other healthcare due to wars. UNICEF said around 40% of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children live in countries affected by conflict, making them vulnerable to disease outbreaks like measles or polio, which was recently detected in Gaza for the first time in 25 years.
“Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood,” said Russell.
“Their schools are bombed, homes destroyed, and families torn apart. They lose not only their safety and access to basic life-sustaining necessities, but also their chance to play, to learn, and to simply be children.”
UNICEF: Children must not be ‘collateral damage’ in ‘unchecked wars’
UNICEF also highlighted the high number children being killed, injured or otherwise having their rights violated by conflicts in Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar.
It reiterated a call for all parties to conflicts to end the suffering of children and ensure their rights are upheld in accordance with international humanitarian obligations.
“We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars,” Russell said.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
