Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef
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UN humanitarian body warns that dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the ‘new normal’. Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN.
![[Catherine Russell of Unicef]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d0516aeed620cbd74766cc8ea3e79a912bbcae30/1212_145_2503_3128/master/2503.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, said on Saturday that the percentage of children living in conflict zones around the world has doubled from about 10% in the 1990s to almost 19%, and warned that this dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the “new normal”.
With more conflicts being waged around the world than at any time since 1945, Unicef said that children were increasingly falling victim. Citing its latest available data, from 2023, the UN verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children, the highest figures since the security council mandated monitoring of the impact of war on the world’s children nearly 20 years ago.
The death toll after nearly 15 months of Israel’s war in Gaza is estimated at more than 45,000 and out of the cases it has verified, the UN said 44% were children. In Ukraine, the UN said it had verified more child casualties during the first nine months of 2024 than during all of 2023, and predicted there would be a further increase in 2025.
“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in Unicef’s history – both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives,” Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said.
