There are 449 million children living in conflict zones. In one year more than 8,000 died or were maimed with an average of 22 per day.
Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria — some of the main nationalities of origin of the people who lost their lives in the Croton shipwreck just this week– are among the ten worst countries for children to live in.
That’s according to the report “The Forgotten Ones,” released today in Italy by Save the Children as part of the ‘Children Under Attack’ campaign that plans a series of awareness-raising initiatives until March 26, the anniversary of the war in Yemen.
The organization is also launching the “Save the Survivors” video, based on true stories, such as that of Ruba, from Syria, who was only a few days old when she lost her parents, killed by a barrel bomb explosion. Or of Dioura, 12, who was forced to flee and build a new life after her village in Niger was attacked by armed groups. And of Kibrom, 13, who, after traveling on foot for a month with his mother, sheltering in caves, is haunted by memories of the violence he saw on the journey and terrified of experiencing more.
According to the report, Afghanistan, along with the occupied Palestinian territories, had the highest number of children killed or maimed as a result of conflict in 2021: 633 were killed and 1,723 were maimed as a result of IEDs, explosions or explosive remnants of war. In Somalia, 793 children were killed or maimed: the country has been marked by a dramatically high number of violations against its youngest children for a decade, with an average of 847 girls and boys killed and maimed each year. Syria, records the second highest rate of recruitment and use of girls and boys, with 1,301 reported cases: the worst figure ever touched in the country and dramatically up from 2016, when there were 961.
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