(AP) – Child soldiers, underage sex slaves, orphaned adolescent refugees — France’s president and UNICEF are urging the international community to do more to protect the more than 200 million children of today’s conflict zones. “The situation is as urgent as ever,” French President Francois Hollande pleaded as he opened a conference in Paris on Tuesday with representatives from 80 countries, decrying “the nightmare that killed these children’s innocence.” Organizers want coordinated efforts to liberate and re-integrate thousands of child soldiers from Sudan to Somalia, and thousands of girls forced into wedlock by militants from Nigeria to Afghanistan.
