The year 2018 was marked by the highest levels of children killed or maimed in armed conflict since the United Nations started monitoring and reporting this grave violation, shows the latest Annual Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict released on 30 Jul.
30 July 2019 at UN Headquarters in New York~UN Photo by Mark Garten
Presenting the report at UN Headquarters in New York, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, noted that between 2017 and 2018, all violations are decreasing, “except one, which is sexual violence against children which is exactly the same amount as a year before.”
Gamba said, “that is a plateau that has to be broken and we are not making any inroads into breaking that plateau.”
The only situation, she said, “where all the numbers, all of them, all the violations on all the categories” have increased, is Somalia.
She made a plea “to keep an eye on Somalia” as “right now there is no engagement, but it’s desperately needed.”
In Somalia, she said, “there’s been over 1,000 children killed and maimed. There’s been 2,300 children recruited last year alone. There’s been 375 children in detention. There’s been sexual violence against 331 children. There’s been 77 attacks on schools. There’s been 14 attacks on hospitals, and this year we are trying to make a differentiation between schools and hospitals. And there’s 11,609 children abducted.
The denial of humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Gamba said, “is horrific.”
Asked about the situation of Palestinian children in the territories occupied by Israel, the Special Representative said, “the Secretary-General asked me really to further examine all the cases of injury and maiming caused by Israeli forces. He also asked me to engage in prevention measures with both parties to the conflict as requested by the resolutions. And he is calling very seriously on both parties to abide by their obligations under international law.”
According to the report, the recruitment and use of children continued unabated with more than 7,000 children drawn into frontline fighting and support roles globally.
Incidents of sexual violence against boys and girls remained prevalent in all situations (933 cases), but the violation continued to be underreported due to lack of access, stigma and fear of reprisals
A total of 13,600 children benefited from release and reintegration support worldwide, an increasing number compared to the previous year (12,000). 2,253 children were separated from armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 833 in Nigeria and 785 in the Central African Republic. As the number of children released is increasing, resources and funding for reintegration support must meet the growing needs, as called for in Security Council resolution 2427 (2018) and highlighted in the report’s recommendation~UNIFEED
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