Children of War

Russian Troops and Separatist Guerrillas: Chechnya

Boys play football in bombed out Grozny
REUTERS/Said Tsarnayev

Fighting between Russian troops and separatist guerrillas has killed an estimated 70,000 civilians and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes.
  • Chechnya is one of only two places in the world where aid agencies routinely use armed escorts.
  • Some 95,000 people are displaced, mostly living in squalid shelters.
  • Mines and unexploded ordinance are a major risk.
  • 90 percent of Grozny's schools are damaged or destroyed - International Rescue Committee.
  • Children have been traumatised by years of gunbattles, bombings and upheaval.
  • Four fifths have health problems, mainly neurological and psychological, according to a 2003 health survey.
"Sadly, the consequences of war will have a major impact on the health of our children for many years to come."

Chechen Ministry of Health official Hasan Gadayev in 2003


Al Jazeera--Witness: Lost Children of Chechnya, Parts 1 and 2
  
    

Israeli-Palestinian Violence: Palestinian Territories

Medics treat a child after a Gaza missile strike
REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

Years of Israeli-Palestinian violence has killed civilians and destroyed infrastructure. Children are not just at risk of death and injury, but also psychosocial disorders. Many teenagers in rundown cities and refugee camps see few better opportunities than joining an armed faction.

  • More than 700 Palestinian children have been killed in the uprising.
  • Nearly a third of families have a child suffering symptoms of psychosocial distress.
  • Chronic malnutrition among under-fives is on the rise - now 10 percent.
  • Few safe places for play or sport. Israeli limits on movement keep many out of school.
  • Some 285 children were in Israeli detention as of Sept. 2005.

"It's better to spend even your whole life in prison than to be stuck here."

Hijazi Abdul-Rahman, 18, from the West Bank. He tried to get himself arrested so he could be sent to an Israeli-run jail where he could study and sit exams.

 

Palestinian Children


Deteriorating Security: Afghanistan

A woman carries her child in Kabul
REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Security is deteriorating once more in Afghanistan, just as it emerges from a quarter century of conflict. Insurgents often target civilians, but disease is the main child killer - an estimated 600 under-fives die every day, mostly due to preventable illnesses like malaria and measles.
  • A quarter of children don't see their fifth birthday - the fourth highest rate in the world.
  • More than half of children are stunted.
  • In eleven provinces 80 to 99 percent of girls don't go to school.
  • A fifth of primary school children do some form of work.
  • Children are at risk from insurgent and military operations, landmines and unexploded ordinance.
"The most important thing now is to have all children in school. That's very important for the development of the country."

UNICEF deputy executive director Rima Salah

Children of Conflict, Parts 1 and 2: Al Jazeera

    

Future Powerhouse: India

A girl carries sand in the city of Siliguri
REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

India is being hailed as a future economic powerhouse, yet 1.2 million children under five die from malnutrition every year. Child labour is outlawed, but tens of millions are forced to work to help feed their families or pay loan sharks.
  • Rights groups estimate 60 to 115 million children work.
  • More than 2 million children under five die each year.
  • Malnutrition affects nearly half of under fives.
  • Diarrhoea is the second biggest child killer.
  • Children have been uprooted by violence in Kashmir and the northeast.
  • Thousands of unborn girls are aborted.
"We used to go through the garbage fields to look for glass, plastic and other recyclable materials. We collected about 10 rupees for each bag containing a kilo of this material."
 
Samsur Mohamad, 13, interviewed by UNICEF


Laila Rouass Investigates Child Labor in India 


Ongoing Violence: Iraq

A child lies injured in a car bomb attack in Doura
REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

Iraq's ruinous wars, crippling sanctions and ongoing violence have had a devastating effect on children. Shootings and bombings have killed, injured and orphaned thousands, but the biggest killer is illness transmitted through unclean water and exacerbated by under-nutrition.

  • One in eight children dies before their fifth birthday.
  • Nine percent are acutely malnourished - double the number before the U.S.-led invasion.
  • Hundreds of schools have been attacked and teachers killed.
  • Unexploded ordinance and mines litter the country.
  • Children are injured on dumps looking for metal to sell to help support their families.
"I don't understand why adults do it (wage wars). I would never wish a war upon anyone. I would like to have it that children never have to fear war."

Ali Ismaeel Abbas who lost his parents and both arms in a missile strike in Baghdad.

Suffer the Children: Iraq 



Children Enlisted for War: Democratic Republic of Congo

Child soldiers at an ethnic Hema militia camp near Bunia

Although the war finished in 2003, hundreds of children die every day from hunger, disease and violence. Children are still being abducted, raped and recruited as soldiers by the armed forces and rebel groups.

  • Armed groups enlisted 25,000 children during the war - UNICEF.
  • Girls are raped and forced to become sex slaves to fighters.
  • U.N. peacekeepers stand accused of sexually exploiting children, giving them food or money for sex.
  • One in five children dies before their fifth birthday.
  • Child labour is likely to become an increasing problem as investors rush to exploit Congo's vast resources.

"I don't want to go back to the army. I would like to have some goats for stock breeding, but I can't go home: I'm sure the soldiers will come and take me again."

Izaak, 15

 

War Child in the Democratic Republic of Congo 

 



Uprooted Children: Uganda

Night commuters at a shelter in Gulu, northern Uganda
REUTERS/Radu Sigheti

Nearly a million children have been uprooted by the war in northern Uganda where the cult-like rebel Lord's Resistance Army is notorious for abducting and brutalising children.

  • There are 935,000 children living in over 200 camps.
  • Rebels have kidnapped around 25,000 children.
  • Boys are used as soldiers and porters.
  • Girls are used as sex slaves.
  • Thousands of child "night commuters" walk miles each evening to find places to sleep where they won't be kidnapped.
  • "Child mothers" who return from captivity with babies are stigmatised.
"I always had to force myself to go into battle - I never wanted to do that. We were obliged to fight, or be killed by our leaders."

Barnabas, 13, talking to World Vision

The Children's War: Uganda


The World's Ten Worst Child Danger Spots

A displaced child at Aboushouk camp in Norther Darfur
REUTHERS/Nima Elbagirt

  • Nearly 11 million children a year die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes.
  • Out of 100 children born in 2000, 30 will likely suffer malnutrition and 17 will never go to school.
  • An estimated 218 million children are used for labour, millions in virtual slavery.
  • An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year for labour or sex.
  • There are over 300,000 child soldiers, some as young as eight, in more than 30 countries.
  • More than 2 million children are thought to have died in armed conflict in the past decade.
  • Up to 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines each year.
  • An estimated 100 million women and girls have undergone genital mutilation.
Sources: UNICEF, International Labour Organization

Children Forced to Work

Children of Phnom Penh, David Barboza, The New York Times

 

Many children living in poverty are forced to work to support themselves and their families.

A large proportion of the world's 218 million child workers are in India, which came sixth in the poll.

"An estimated 60 to 115 million children are classified as working children - the highest number in the world," said Anuradha Mittal, director of the Oakland Institute think tank.

"Deprived of their childhoods, most have never seen the inside of a school."

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Wendy Chamberlin highlighted the case of Nepali girls who are trafficked to Indian cities, including Mumbai and Calcutta, for sex work. "They are really trapped," she said.

In Russia's breakaway Chechnya republic, fighting has displaced at least 95,000 people and UNICEF says 99 percent of residents live below the official Russian poverty line.

Child soldiers and forced labour were key reasons why respondents picked Myanmar, where the military junta is accused of conscripting tens of thousands of children to fight.

Egeland called on the international community to boost efforts to tackle children's issues around the world. "We must do more to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, particularly as they relate to children, who are, of course, our future," he said.

 

Psychological Trauma

Artist: Mark Vallen

The poll underlined the psychological trauma experienced by children caught up in violence.

"Children (in Iraq) may fear both American soldiers and insurgents; they fear being drummed out of their home if they're from the wrong sect," said Lindsey Hilsum, international editor for Britain's Channel 4 News. "They have no security and no sense of what tomorrow may bring."

Respondents who chose the Palestinian territories cited the long-term strain of living in a place with limited freedom of movement and access to basic services.

"A key concern, especially in Palestine, is that protracted emergencies lead to a lack of opportunities in later life adding to boredom and a sense of hopelessness," said Amalia Fawcett, a policy analyst for World Vision New Zealand.

Somalia and Afghanistan, where warlords are battling for political power, featured due to deteriorating security and widespread poverty.

In 11 provinces in Afghanistan, more than four-fifths of girls do not attend school. More than a quarter of children in Afghanistan and a fifth of children in Somalia die before their fifth birthday.

Journalist Aidan Hartley and humanitarian consultant Tony Vaux also chose Somalia due to the widespread practice of female genital mutilation.

 

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