According to UNICEF, more and more children are suffering from the consequences of wars around the world. One in six children worldwide, a total of around 460 million boys and girls, are now growing up in a war or conflict zone.
According to UNICEF, one in six children grows up in a war or conflict zone. “An estimated 460 million” children are affected, according to the UN Children's Fund's published situation report entitled “Childhood under attack.” Children are in acute danger to their lives due to “shelling, hunger and disease,” and violence against children in armed conflicts is “at an all-time high.”
The United Nations verified a total of 32,990 serious child rights violations in 2023, the organization said. These are “more than ever before”. According to this, more than 57 million children were born in war and crisis countries. The organization called for “urgent compliance with international humanitarian law and increased aid.”
Injured, maimed or killed
The situation is particularly serious in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and Sudan, UNICEF said. In the conflicts there, thousands of children were injured, maimed or killed as a result of fighting in 2023, according to the report. There is always a risk that “the vital basic services and education of children will be interrupted”.
The “horror” that children have to endure in wars and conflicts can “hardly be described in words,” emphasized the managing director of UNICEF Germany, Christian Schneider. A childhood during war should “never become the new 'normal',” he warned. According to UNICEF, serious child rights violations include the killing and mutilation of children, the recruitment or use of child soldiers, attacks on schools or health facilities, rape and sexual violence, kidnapping of children and denied humanitarian access.
UNICEF: “Just the tip of the iceberg”
The children's charity assumes that the numbers will increase again in 2024. The verified cases are only “the tip of the iceberg,” said Lucia Elmi, head of global emergency aid programs. “Significantly more children are being killed and mutilated,” she explained. Conflict parties repeatedly disregard one of the “most important basic rules of war”: “the protection of children.”
The children's aid organization also pointed out the serious psychological consequences for children and their families, which could not be captured by the numbers. UNICEF appealed to all parties to the conflict to protect children in accordance with their obligation under international law. Attacks on civilian infrastructure “must stop.” For the coming year, the organization estimates that 213 million children in crisis regions will need humanitarian assistance.
UNICEF will need funding of $9.9 billion (€9.43 billion) for its emergency aid programs in 2025.
