MADRID 28 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has denounced this Friday that the impact of armed conflicts on children has reached “devastating and probably unprecedented” levels in 2024, the year in which more children are living in conflict zones. or are displaced.
“By almost all indicators, 2024 has been one of the worst years in UNICEF history for children living in conflict zones, both due to the number affected and the magnitude of the impact that these conflicts have on their lives” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
Thus, he denounced that we cannot “allow an entire generation of children to become collateral victims of the uncontrolled wars that plague the world.”
According to the organization’s data, more than 473 million children – approximately one in six in the world – currently live in areas affected by conflict, a significant increase in recent decades.
By the end of 2023, the number of children displaced by conflict and violence was 47.2 million, and trends in 2024 reveal a further increase in the number of children displaced by intensifying conflict, particularly in the Palestinian territory, Haiti, Lebanon, Myanmar and Sudan.
According to data referring to 2023, the latest available, the UN found a total of 32,990 serious violations committed against 22,557 children, the highest number since monitoring began under the mandate of the Security Council.
“Children who live in war zones fight every day to survive and this robs them of their childhood,” Russell stressed, lamenting that “their schools are bombed, their homes are destroyed and their families are devastated.”
“They are not only deprived of security and the possibility of satisfying their basic vital needs, but also of the opportunity to play, learn or enjoy their childhood. The world is leaving these children aside,” he stated.
UNICEF has also called on all parties involved in conflicts to take action to end the “suffering” of children and ensure respect for their rights under International Humanitarian Law.