Violence involving children in conflicts takes darker turn – UNICEF

Millions of children around the world are caught up in adults’ wars, deliberately killed, injured, raped or abducted, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

It said their schools and homes are being destroyed; they are being denied food, water and health care.

Tens of thousands are forced to join armed forces and groups, according to Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF on the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1612 in New York, in a statement copied to Ghana News Agency.

“Ten years ago the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1612, to better protect children affected by conflict. Today, enormous efforts are being made to protect children in countries at war.”

It said more than 10,000 children were released from armed forces and groups worldwide, and received support returning to their communities, last year.

“But violence involving children in conflicts has taken a darker turn.”

It said: “Reports from Iraq, Nigeria and Syria have shown that how children are being used by adults as perpetrators of extreme violence, children who have been forced to observe and participate in executions, encouraged to believe that violence is normal, their young and impressionable minds exposed to senseless brutality, in total disregard of the sanctity of childhood.

“Every child in a conflict who is killed or forced to kill, or who has witnessed the brutality of war, is a victim. An innocent, who has borne the cost of conflict, not of his or her making.

“We should be outraged that such suffering continues and that more is not being done to end these horrors and to hold those responsible to account,” the statement said.

Source: GNA