At least 420 million children, or 18 percent of all children worldwide, lived in conflict-affected areas of the world in 2017, according to Save the Children International, which has said that each year 100,000 babies die as a result of conflict on their lives. Hunger, a lack of access to medical aid and other kinds of help are all factors that affect children and cause death in many cases. During the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, there has been an increase in the number of deaths with 870,000 children killed as a direct or indirect result of war. The worst hit countries were Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Syria, Mali and Yemen among others.
The findings should really come as no surprise. We hear about the death of children in wars almost every day. Images from Yemen, Syria and Iraq flood social media as do those from other parts of the world. The recruitment of children to form parts of armed groups and the threat they face of being killed, maimed or made victims of sexual violence are also realities that are not far from our lives. Aside from the list of countries mentioned by Save the Children, the fact is that conflict exists also nearer to home, in our own tribal areas and elsewhere, and there have been reports over the past two decades of children being used to act as armed fighters in Swat or other places.
We need to bring the world together to combat the problem, and all that is possible should be done to prevent children from suffering the impact of war. But this can be possible only when the nations of the world take a united stand against the problem and there is greater space for those fleeing conflict zones or attempting to find save havens when their lives or those of their children are in peril. At home, we can do more to sign and ratify conventions which prevent the use of children as combatants in any war-like situation. We also need to ensure that in areas which have been affected by conflict or continue to be caught up in some kind of warfare, children are kept safe and humanitarian aid brought in to them through local agencies, the government and where necessary international groups that specialise in dealing with the trauma which affects all people and especially children and women in war-torn areas.