With the unleashing of over 135 child-suicide bombers on
Nigeria northeast, and increase across the world, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)
has lamented there is no more safe places left for children, reports NaijaAgroNet.
UNICEF in its latest submission on the state of suffering
by Children made available to NaijaAgroNet,
UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, said that in northeast
Nigeria and Cameroon, Boko Haram has forced at least 135 children to act as
suicide bombers, almost five times the number in 2016.
NaijaAgroNet also gathered that millions more children are
paying an indirect price for these conflicts, suffering from malnutrition,
disease and trauma as basic services – including access to food, water,
sanitation and health; as they were denied, damaged or destroyed in the
fighting.
Also in the Central African Republic, UNICEF said that after months of
renewed fighting, a
dramatic increase in violence saw children being killed, raped,
abducted and recruited by armed groups.
Over 2017 in the Afghanistan, almost 700 children were
killed in the first 9 months of the year, while in the Kasai region of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, violence has driven 850,000 children from
their homes, while more than 200 health centres and 400 schools were attacked.
An estimated 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute
malnutrition.
In Iraq and Syria, UNICEF said, children have reportedly
been used as human shields, trapped under siege, targeted by snipers and lived
through intense bombardment and violence.
Children in Myanmar, Rohingya region, UNICEF said, suffered
and witnessed shocking and widespread violence as they were attacked and driven
from their homes in Rakhine state; while children in remote border areas of
Kachin, Shan, and Kayin states continued to suffer the consequences of ongoing
tensions between the Myanmar Armed Forces and various ethnic armed
groups.
For the South Sudan, NaijaAgroNet reports that conflict has
seen to a collapsing economy which led to a famine declaration in parts of the
country, more than 19,000 children have been recruited into armed forces and
armed groups, and over 2,300 children have been killed or injured since
the conflict first erupted in December 2013.
Whereas in Somalia, estimated 1,740 cases of child
recruitment were reported in the first 10 months of 2017.
Just as 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. More than 11 million children need
humanitarian assistance. Out of 1.8 million children suffering from
malnutrition, 385,000 are severely malnourished and at risk of death if not
urgently treated.
UNICEF calls on all parties to conflict to abide by their
obligations under international law to immediately end violations against
children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools and
hospitals. UNICEF also calls on States with influence over parties to conflict
to use that influence to protect children.
NaijaAgroNet
recalls that across all these countries, UNICEF works with partners to provide
the most vulnerable children with health, nutrition, education and child
protection services.
Isaac Oyimah/ED, ops
