Children caught in the middle of conflicts – Study  

Shaimaa Yahia

Around 415 million children are caught in the middle of conflicts around the world, a new study says.

The study conducted by the Save the Children organization and released on February 13, says the number of children caught in the middle of conflicts rose dramatically since 1995.

It added in the study that was released on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference, that these children do not receive humanitarian support and are subjected to all types of violations, including rape, physical torture, and enforcement recruitment within terrorist groups.

Alarming rates

Children are important for terrorist organizations such as ISIS. These organizations want to raise a new generation of members who are committed to their ideology. Children are also easy to train in extremist ideologies.

According to UNICEF, the terrorist Boko Haram organization used children in staging suicide attacks in the northeastern part of Nigeria in early 2017.

This was four times the number of attacks launched by the organization through children in 2016, UNICEF said.

The organization forced children to wear explosive belts and blow themselves up in public places.

UNICEF said international commitment to ending the use of children in military conflicts led to freeing 5,000 children. Nevertheless, it added, tens of thousands of other children are forced to fight for terrorist organizations, which should send warning signals everywhere.

Save the children

Executive Director of Save the Children, Susanna Krüger, said this needless destruction of children’s lives would continue so long as governments and warring parties around the world do not formulate regulations that bring those who violate the rights of the children to account.

She revealed that children were subjected to danger in ten countries in 2018.

These countries were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Yemen, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and the Central African Republic.