UNICEF concerned over increase in child casualties in Somalia

[News_Editor]

UNICEF concerned over increase in child casualties in Somalia

2011-06-03 00:40:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday voiced its concern over the increase in child casualties in Somalia due to the ongoing armed conflict.

The UN body added that new reports were received detailing the grave violations of children’s rights that are taking place every day in the central south of the African country.

According to UNICEF, forty children below the age of fifteen were reportedly killed in the latest wave of fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu last May. Many of them were killed in crossfire or as a result of being unlawfully recruited on the front lines by all parties to the conflict.

"Children in central south Somalia face never-ending suffering in what is arguably one of the most extreme, indiscriminate and complex conflicts in today's world," UNICEF said in a statement.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that children under the age of 5 also accounted for 46 percent of all weapon-related injuries in Mogadishu in May in comparison to only 3.5 percent in January.

UNICEF remarked that thousands of Somalia children are reported to be directly involved in the fighting. Those minors who managed to escape from armed groups have no safe place to go.

The armed conflict also has a significant impact on children as it affects their physical and mental well-being, exposes them to extreme life-threatening situations, displacement and food insecurity and leaves them without health care, education and protection from violence, abuse and exploitation.

In addition to the conflict, there are at least 180,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia's southern region as only 30 percent of the population has access to safe water.

Finally, UNICEF called for improving education for Somalia's youth as it represents a critical challenge to peace and stability in the future. Somalia has had no fully functioning national government and since the collapse in 1991 of the administration led by the late Muhammad Siad Barre.

An estimated 2.4 million people (one third of the country's 7.2 million people) are in need of relief aid as a result of drought and two decades of conflict, most recently between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Al-Shabaab Islamic militants.

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