Reuters

Algeria: Background

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 


War and Anarchy: Somalia

A boy drinks at a manmade dam in drought ravaged Somalia
REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

War and anarchy has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in Somalia, which has been controlled by feuding clans for 15 years. The worst drought in a decade has left around 1.7 million people in need of help.

  • Some 400,000 people are displaced within Somalia, half of them in squatter camps in Mogadishu.
  • Nearly a quarter of children die before their fifth birthday.
  • Clan militias enlist boys to fight.
  • Female genital mutilation is widespread.
  • Children are trafficked to South Africa, Middle East and Europe.
"The frightening fact is that Somalia is officially not even at war. Extreme violence has become a part of daily existence and the effect on the population is catastrophic."

Medecins Sans Frontieres head of mission Colin Mcllreavy quoted on the MSF website

UNICEF TV: Protecting Children's Rights in Somalia


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