Children Increasingly Used as Frontline Targets in War Zones: UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday said that the year 2017 was a ‘nightmare year’ for children caught in conflict areas. The agency noted that there has been increasing number of incidents of children being deliberately targeted in war zones.

“Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. “As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal.”

Increasingly numbers of children are being used as human shields, killed, maimed, abducted and recruited to fight. And millions suffer from ‘diseases brought on by crushing wars’.

The UNICEF statement comes days after a report by Defence of Children International – Palestine (DCI-P) looking into the increasing brutality against Palestinian children by Israeli forces.

“Excessive force and misuse of crowd control weapons has once again proved to be the norm for Israeli forces when quashing protests,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCIP. “Israeli forces seemingly disregard their own open-fire regulations and international law, and enjoy near complete impunity for their unlawful conduct. This lack of justice and accountability results in a high toll paid by Palestinian minors subjected to serious injury or even death.”

The DCI-P documented eight child injuries inflicted by Israeli forces in Occupied Palestinian Territory, out of which six suffered head wounds. The report also noted a spike in the number of Palestinian children being detained in Israel’s military prisons.

According to DCI-P, in one of the cases a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head with a rubber bullet by Israeli forces. He underwent two operations to remove the rubber-coated metal bullet, which lodged in ‘the back of his skull and caused severe bleeding in his brain’.

Highlighting the cases of children being illegally detained by Israel, the report noted that a 16-year-old girl, Ahed Tamimi, was arrested in a night raid along with her family.

The UNICEF statement notes about cases around the world where children are being deliberately targeted in violation of international laws designed to protect the most vulnerable. Terming these violations as the ‘new normal’, the report underlines several cases:

• Afghanistan witnessed almost 700 children being killed in the first 9 months of the year

• In the Central African Republic, the increasing violence saw children being killed, raped, abducted and recruited by armed groups.

• In Democratic Republic of the Congo, an estimated 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute malnutrition.

• In Nigeria and Cameroon, Islamist group Boko Haram has forced at least 135 children to act as suicide bombers, a five time increase from 2016

• In Syria and Iraq, number of cases of children being used as human shields, trapped under siege, targeted by snipers have been reported.

• In Somalia, 1,740 cases of child recruitment were reported in the first 10 months of 2017.

• In eastern Ukraine, 220,000 children lived under constant threat of mines and explosives near the 500-kilometer ‘contact line’- one of the most mine-contaminated places on earth.

The conflict in Myanmar and Yemen hugely contributed to the increasing of incidents of deliberate attack against children. In Yemen, the war has left at least 5,000 children dead or injured, with actual numbers expected to be much higher, the statement notes.

The US backed Saudi led military blockade and bombing has caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Yemen, with 11 million children in need of humanitarian assistance. Around 385,000 children are severely malnourished and at risk of death if not urgently treated.

In Myanmar, Rohingya children ‘suffered and witnessed shocking and widespread violence’perpetrated by the Myanmar army. In a recent report, international NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) noted that around 730 children were killed during the ‘clearance operation’ by the army in August this year.