2024, one of the “worst years” for children in conflict zones, according to the UN

This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:

Hibapress

The year 2024 was one of the “worst years” for children caught in the cycle of conflicts around the world, underlines the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

From the Middle East to Myanmar, including Haiti and Sudan, nearly 19% of the world’s children – more than 473 million – today live in conflict zones, and 47.2 million have been displaced by conflicts and violence, according to a count by the UN agency.

Thousands of children have been killed and injured in the Middle East and Ukraine, where the UN has recorded more child casualties in the first nine months of 2024 than in all of 2023.

Due to these conflicts, the rights of a “record number of children” are violated, writes Unicef, which regrets that more and more children are killed or injured, deprived of school and vital vaccines, and are victims of severe malnutrition.

“This number is only expected to increase,” deplores the UN agency, which also reports child victims of rape and sexual violence in conflict situations.

In terms of education, explains the agency, more than 52 million children in countries affected by conflict are not in school.

“By almost any measure, 2024 was one of the worst years on record for children affected by conflict in all of history,” both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives », deplores the Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell.

“This must not become the new norm,” argues the UN official, who calls for not allowing a generation of children to “become the collateral victim of the uncontrolled wars that are ravaging the world.”