UNICEF: Situation of Millions of Children in Dozens of Countries Worse Than 20 Years Ago
The United Nations Children’s Fund in its latest report states that 180 million children from 37 countries around the world are facing absolute poverty, lack of access to school, or death from violence more than 20 years ago. Yemen, Syria, and Iraq are among these countries.
In the report released on “World Children’s Day” – November 20, corresponding to November 29 this year – “UNICEF” states that out of every 12 children, one lives in a country where future prospects are significantly worse than 20 years ago.
Tensions and wars, as well as poor economic and political conditions in 37 countries around the world, are the main causes of the current situation for 180 million of the 2.2 billion children living in different countries.
The worst setback, at present, belongs to South Sudan; where, according to UNICEF, in the midst of a deadly internal war, the future outlook for children in all three categories of poverty, lack of education, and death from violence is bleak.
“Death from violence” among citizens under 19 years of age has increased in seven countries around the world: Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
The situation of children in four countries – Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic – has declined in two categories.
UNICEF says that in 21 countries, including Syria, elementary school enrollment has declined. Issues such as violence and war, economic crisis, and population growth are cited as factors affecting this decline.
The United Nations and related organizations have previously separately warned about child deaths due to violence from wars, their exclusion from school, as well as hunger, poverty, and epidemic diseases such as cholera in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
The senior refugee affairs body of the United Nations said in June that Syria’s internal war had left more than 12 million displaced by the end of 2016, which is close to two-thirds of the country’s population. Many of the displaced are children, and many of them have been deprived of access to basic rights, such as education.
UNICEF said in July that since the escalation of violence in Iraq in 2014, more than a thousand children have been killed in the fighting. The organization warned that Iraqi children have fallen into an endless cycle of violence and increasing poverty, and five million of them are in need of immediate assistance.
The International Red Crescent says one million Yemeni citizens are at risk of cholera, and the United Nations said in August that eighty percent of children in Yemen need humanitarian assistance.
Source: Radio Farda
