Nearly 500 million children live in conflict zones, face violations - Report

In its latest report titled Stop the War on Children, Save the Children reports a 14% increase in 2023 in violations of the rights of children living in conflict zones around the world.

More than 31,000 cases were recorded this year, or around 86 violations a day, including sexual assaults, and attacks on schools.

''Over 473 million children - more than a sixth of the world's population - now live in conflict zones. In 2023, there were also 31,729 grave violations of children's rights, a record since the UN began documenting these incidents in 2010. These violations include an alarming number of murders and mutilations,'' said Musa Chibwana, the Regional Humanitarian Analyst at Save the Children.

Another serious violation concerns the denial of access to humanitarian aid: in Palestine, 3,250 such incidents were reported in 2023. Meanwhile, global military spending has tripled, and urgent humanitarian aid needs are being neglected.

''What we're seeing is a growing appetite for conflict and military intervention, to the detriment of peace and development,'' said Chibwana.

The world has never been so dangerous for children: in 2023, the NGO says that the number of crimes committed during conflicts reached an unprecedented level. In Sudan, these violations have increased 5-fold since 2022, from 317 to 1,759 cases.