(Independent) – Imagine that you are trapped with your family in a town under siege. Food and fuel are running out. Your children are hungry, cold and terrified by air raids and artillery. In the chaos, hundreds of people in urgent need of medical care have little prospect of treatment. Link
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(The Guardian) – A stark warning from the UN in mid-December that genocide may be taking place in Myanmar has been met by an awkward silence around the world, indicating a limited appetite for forceful humanitarian intervention, even in the most extreme cases. The persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority is beginning to resemble the plight […]
(All Africa) – 2018 will be make or break time for South Sudan as the international community intervenes perhaps for the last time. After four years of civil war, effort by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development to resuscitate the August 2015 peace agreement is headed for proper negotiations in February 2018. Link
(The New York Times) – In wars around the globe, thousands of children were front-line targets, used as human shields and recruited to fight this year on “a shocking scale,” Unicef said on Thursday. The United Nations agency warned against normalizing the brutality, a sentiment it has echoed in reports year after year. Link
(CNN) – They have been killed, recruited to fight, used as human shields, forced into marriage and enslaved. 2017 has been a “nightmare year” for children caught in the crosshairs of conflict, the UN’s agency for children has said. Link
(Medium) – 2017 has been a devastating year for children trapped in conflicts. They came under attack in spaces where they should be safe — in homes, schools and hospitals and on playgrounds. Children were deliberately targeted in many conflicts: They were used as human shields, killed, maimed, abducted and recruited to fight. Millions of children also […]
(UN News Centre) – The scale of attack on children in conflict zones throughout 2017 is “shocking” said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), calling on all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law and immediately end violations and attacks against children.“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence […]
(Huffington Post) – “I saw many bad things in the army.” In Canada, an 11-year-old child is normally offered a football or a Frisbee, not an AK-47 and bullets. But Luny’s* boyhood was short lived. At 11 years old, he was recruited into the armed forces in South Sudan, forced to fight for a cause he […]
(UNICEF) – South Sudan is in the throes of a tragedy for children that affects more than half the child population – victims of malnutrition, disease, forced recruitment, violence and the loss of schooling – UNICEF said in a report released today. Years of insecurity and upheaval have had a “staggering impact on children”, threatening an […]
(Plan International) – Last month the number of South Sudanese refugees who have fled to Uganda exceeded 1 million for the first time. With thousands more arriving each day, Plan International is calling for increased support and awareness from the international community to ensure children’s needs are met. Link
