The World Food Program’s delay in helping the needy in Yemen has provoked the anger of the people there. The delay in the implementation of UN humanitarian programs has intensified their suffering and the number of those in need has also increased due to the continuation of the Saudi coalition war. According to Al-Mayadeen TV channel on Monday, needy Yemeni families gathered in front of the World Food Program headquarters in Sana’a and condemned that organization’s action in halting the implementation of the cash and food aid program for the remaining families registered with it.
They are abducted, abused or even killed: Around the world, children are at massive risk of war. A new report shows just how much. 449 million children lived in a conflict region in 2021, 230 million of them even in a particularly dangerous area. That’s according to the latest “War on Children” report by the Save the Children organization and the Oslo-based Prio Peace Research Institute. Worldwide, one in six children was thus affected, in the Middle East even one in three. Yemen, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the most dangerous countries for children. According to the report, it reveals frightening findings about children in conflict and war zones.
The ten most dangerous countries in 2021 were Yemen, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria, Mali, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Myanmar. The absolute number of children in conflict decreased from 452 million to 449 million compared to the previous year.
However, more than half of the children affected-230 million-lived in a particularly dangerous war zone; this was nine percent higher than in 2020. Areas where there are more than 1,000 deaths from fighting per year are considered particularly dangerous.
Africa had the most children affected by conflict in 2021 (180 million), followed by Asia (152 million) and the Americas (64 million), the Middle East (49 million) and Europe (19 million).
The report looks at the most serious crimes against children: Abductions, sexual violence, recruitment as child soldiers, denial of access to humanitarian aid, attacks on schools and hospitals, and killing and maiming. A total of 24,515 such serious crimes against children were recorded in 2021, the lowest level in five years. However, such offenses often go unreported, not least because access to affected areas is difficult to impossible. As a result, there are fears that the number of unreported cases is high.
“Every day, girls and boys are killed, injured or abused,” Save the Children Executive Director Florian Westphal commented on the findings.
