An estimated 535 million children – almost one in four across the globe – live in nations affected by conflict or disaster and often don’t have access to medical care, quality education, proper nutrition or protection, according to UNICEF.
The new figure has been released to mark the 70th anniversary of UNICEF which fell on 11th December – last Sunday.
Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s executive director, said the organisation was established to “bring help and hope to children whose lives and futures are endangered by conflict and deprivation”, adding: “[T]his enormous figure – representing the individual lives of half a billion children – is a sharp reminder that our mission is becoming more urgent every day.”
Figures from UNICEF also show that almost 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes – more than half of them by conflict – including in Syria while with the number of children now living under siege in that country – 500,000 – is double that of a year ago.
In north-eastern Nigeria, almost a million of the 1.8 million people displaced are children, in Afghanistan, almost half of all primary-school aged children are out of school, and in Yemen, nearly 10 million children are affected by the conflict there.
In South Sudan, 59 per cent of primary-school aged children are out of school and one in three schools are closed in conflict-affected areas. In Haiti, more than 90,000 children aged under five remain in need of assistance more than two months after Hurricane Matthew hit the nation.
“Whether children live in a country in conflict or a country in peace, their development is critical not only to their individual futures but also to the future of their societies,” Mr Lake said.
