Armed conflict, inter-communal violence and inse-curity continued to take a devastating toll on thou-sands of children throughout 2021, the UN Chil-dren’s Fund (UNICEF), warned Friday.
From Afghanistan to Yemen, and Syria to northern Ethiopia, UNICEF denounced grave viola-tions against young people in both protracted and new conflicts.
Last week, four children were reportedly among the victims of an attack that killed at least 35 people including two Save the Children staff in Kayah state in eastern Myanmar.
In a statement, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said that, year after year, parties to conflict continue to demonstrate a dreadful disre-gard for the rights and wellbeing of children.
Children are suffering, and children are dying because of this callousness. Every effort should be made to keep these children safe from harm, she added.
Data is not yet available for this year, but the UN verified 26,425 grave violations against children in 2020.
The first three months of 2021 saw a slight de-crease in the overall number of these grave viola-tions but verified cases of abduction and sexual violence continued to rise at alarming rates by more than 50 and 10 per cent, respectively.
Verified abductions were highest in Somalia, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the countries of the Lake Chad Basin (Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger). —AP
