UNICEF says over 28,500 kids killed in Afghanistan in 16 years

UNICEF says more than 28,500 children have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 16 years.

“Afghanistan, for example, has the highest number of verified child casualties since 2005, at more than 28,500 – accounting for 27 percent of all verified child casualties globally,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement on Friday.

Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and northern Ethiopia are the places where children have paid a devastating price amid armed conflict and lingering insecurity, according to UNICEF. “Year after year, parties to conflict continue to demonstrate a dreadful disregard for the rights and wellbeing of children,” said Fore. He called on “all parties to conflict” to take concrete measures to protect children who “are suffering, and children are dying because of this callousness.”

The UN has also verified 266,000 cases of grave violations against children in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, West Asia and Latin America over the past 16 years.

According to the statement, these are only the cases verified by UN-led monitoring and reporting mechanisms, meaning that the true figures may be far larger.

UNICEF also warned about deteriorating situation of children in Afghanistan, saying millions of Afghan kids are increasingly vulnerable to disease due to malnutrition and an unprecedented food crisis.

Afghanistan is facing what UN agencies have described as “one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters” since the collapse of Kabul in mid-August, which came after the United States’ disastrous withdrawal from the country.

The US military withdrew its forces from Afghanistan 20 years after they invaded the country to topple the Taliban, in a war that killed, according to one estimate, between 897,000 and 929,000 people.

Afghanistan's economy in ‘free fall’; 97% population staring at poverty, warns UN

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said 23 million people in Afghanistan are battling hunger, malnourished children are teeming in health facilities, 70 percent of teachers are working without salaries, and millions of students are out of school.

The United Nations’ special representative for Afghanistan warned in November that the country is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and that its collapsing economy is heightening the risk of terrorism.

Since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, the US and its allies have imposed sanctions on the Central Asian country and deprived Afghans of any aid and assistance on the pretext of pressuring the Taliban. However, human rights activists maintain that economic sanctions generally do not punish the rulers, but rather hurt the population, lead to mass starvation, and fuel extremism in the targeted country.

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