More than 100,000 babies die each year from wars and conflicts in the ten worst-hit countries. This emerges from a report published by the child rights organization Save the Children on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference.
Almost every fifth child grows up in a conflict area.
„This is more than ever in the last 20 years,“ said the director of Save the Children International, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. In 2017, the 420 million girls and boys were about half as many in the early 1990s.
Among the ten most dangerous countries for children is the organization Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia and also Mali. In these ten states, between 2013 and 2017, at least 550,000 babies were killed by the consequences of the conflicts.
Most of them, according to the report, died from indirect conflict such as hunger, destroyed infrastructure and lack of access to health care. „If you include children under the age of five, it’s even at least 868,000,“ Save the Children said. By comparison, according to the organization, 175,000 fighting adults were killed during the same period. „The suffering of children in wars is becoming more and more appalling,“ said Susanna Krüger, Managing Director of Save the Children Germany.
„Children and civilians must never be targets for attack.“ Yet girls and boys came under fire on a daily basis. „War crimes such as the use of chemical weapons, forced recruitment or rape are commonplace and the world is watching.“ Save the Children is committed, among other things, to an independent commission of inquiry into all violations of peoples and human rights, especially children.
