Armed conflict, violence, and insecurity continued to take a devastating toll on thousands of children throughout 2021, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) has warned.
From Afghanistan to Yemen, and Syria to northern Ethiopia, Unicef denounced grave violations against youngsters in both protracted and new conflicts.
In a statement, Unicef Director Henrietta Fore said “parties to conflict” have year after year continued to “demonstrate a dreadful disregard for the rights and wellbeing of children”.
Data is not yet available for 2021, but the UN verified 26,425 grave violations against children in 2020.
The first three months of 2021 saw a slight decrease in the overall number of these grave violations but verified cases of abduction and sexual violence continued to rise at alarming rates — by more than 50 and 10 percent, respectively.
The year 2021 also marked a quarter of a century since the publication of Graça Machel’s seminal Impact of war on children report, which urged the UN and international community to take action.
Over the past 16 years, the UN has verified 266,000 cases of grave violations against children in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
While these cases were verified through the 2005 UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, the actual figures are most likely much higher, according to Unicef.
Afghanistan, for example, has the highest number of verified child casualties since 2005.
With more than 28,500 incidents, the country accounts for 27 percent of all verified child casualties globally.
Meanwhile, the Middle East and North Africa has the highest number of verified attacks on schools and hospitals, with 22 verified in the first six months of the year.
In October, Unicef highlighted that around 10,000 children had been killed or maimed in Yemen since fighting escalated in March 2015 — the equivalent of four youngsters every day.
Children also often fall victim to multiple grave rights violations.
Last year, for example, 37 percent of abductions verified by the UN led to the recruitment and use of children in war — surpassing 50 percent in Somalia, DRC and CAR.