2017 has been a nightmare year for children in war zones: UNICEF report

UNICEF has released a report that children caught in war zones are being used as weapons of war i.e. being recruited to fight, being forced to act as suicide bombers, and used as human shields.

According to a report by The Guardian, UNICEF in its 2017 report said the year was brutal for children caught in conflict. The United Nations’ children’s agency added that parties to conflicts were blatantly disregarding international humanitarian law and children were routinely coming under attack.

“Rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement had become standard tactics in conflicts across Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as in Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar,” the report added

Some children, abducted by extremist groups, are abused again by security forces when they are released. Others are indirectly harmed by fighting, through malnutrition and disease, as access to food, water and sanitation are denied or restricted.

Some 27 million children in conflict zones have been forced out of school.

“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” said Manuel Fontaine, Unicef’s director of emergency programmes. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”

Much of the fighting affecting children occurred in long-running conflicts in Africa.