Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef
Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN.The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, said on Saturday that the percentage of children living in conflict zones around the world has doubled from about 10% in the 1990s to almost 19%, and warned that this dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the “new normal”.With more conflicts being waged around the world than at any time since 1945, Unicef said that children were increasingly falling victim.Citing its latest available data, from 2023, the UN verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children, the highest figures since the security council mandated monitoring of the impact of war on the world’s children nearly 20 years ago.The death toll after nearly 15 months of Israel’s war in Gaza is estimated at more than 45,000 and out of the cases it has verified, the UN said 44% were children.
In Ukraine, the UN said it had verified more child casualties during the first nine months of 2024 than during all of 2023, and predicted there would be a further increase in 2025.“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in Unicef’s history – both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives,” Unicef’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said.“A child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home – too often repeatedly – compared with a child living in places of peace,” Russell added.“This must not be the new normal.We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars.
”Unicef drew attention in particular to the plight of women and girls, amid widespread reports of rape and sexual violence in conflicts.It said that in Haiti there had been a 1,000% increase in the number of reported incidents of sexual violence against children over the course of 2024 alone.Unicef also pointed out that children were especially affected by malnutrition in times of war, a particularly lethal threat in Sudan and Gaza.More than half a million people in five conflict-affected countries are in famine.Conflict also seriously affects children’s access to healthcare and education.
Forty per cent of unvaccinated or undervaccinated children live in countries wholly or partly affected by conflict, making them far more vulnerable to outbreaks of diseases such as measles and polio.Polio was detected in Gaza in July, the first time the virus had appeared there for a quarter of a century.A UN-led vaccination campaign, enabled by a series of temporary and partial ceasefires, managed to reach more than 90% of the child population.Unicef reported that more than 52 million children in conflict-affected countries were deprived of education, saying most children across the Gaza Strip, and a significant proportion of children in Sudan, had missed out on more than a year of school.In other countries in conflict, including Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria, schools had been damaged, destroyed or repurposed, leaving millions of children without access to learning.
“The impact on children’s mental health is also huge,” Unicef said,A study backed by the charity War Child earlier this month reported that 96% of children in Gaza felt that their death was imminent and almost half wanted to die as a result of the trauma they had been through,“Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood,” Russell said,“Their schools are bombed, homes destroyed, and families torn apart,They lose not only their safety and access to basic life-sustaining necessities, but also their chance to play, to learn, and to simply be children.
The world is failing these children.As we look towards 2025, we must do more to turn the tide and save and improve the lives of children.”
From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Pope Francis: the books to look forward to in 2025
New work from Zadie Smith, memoirs from Jacinda Ardern and Bill Gates, plus the third instalment in Rebecca Yarros’s romantasy series - here’s the biggest fiction and nonfiction for the year aheadNonfictionThe Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World by Sumit Paul-Choudhury (Canongate)The science journalist, who lost his wife to ovarian cancer, investigates the potent emotional forces that drive us on in the face of great hardship. Why do we have this capacity for optimism, and what distinguishes it from wishful thinking?Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Ageing as a Woman by Brooke Shields (Piatkus)The former child actor looks back at her decades-long career under a frequently harsh spotlight and reflects that, despite her industry’s obsession with youth, age brings autonomy and freedom.Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard (Allen Lane)Professor of philosophy and a public intellectual for the internet age, Callard shows how Socrates can inform the way we live our lives – from romance to politics – nearly two and a half thousand years after his death.Hope: The Autobiography by Pope Francis (Viking)Pope Francis planned to release this memoir only after his death, but apparently “the needs of our times … have moved him to make this precious legacy available now”. It will be the first ever papal autobiography
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to The Traitors: a complete guide to the week’s entertainment in the UK
Sonic the Hedgehog 3Out now Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) becomes a paid-up member of the school of thought that says if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, teaming up with former adversaries Sonic, Tails and Knuckles against new kid on the block Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Keanu Reeves.Better ManOut now One of the buzziest and most outlandish propositions for a film this year, this is that Robbie Williams film you’ve heard about where the erstwhile Take That star is depicted by an ape, or, to be more precise, a chimpanzee. The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey directs.The OrderOut now Jude Law stars as Terry Husk, a real-life FBI agent who went undercover with a white-supremacist group led by the neo-Nazi Bob Mathews, in this timely drama from the talented director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Nitram).La CocinaOut now Based on the 1957 stage play The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker and written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios, this new version reimagines the kitchen in question as belonging to a Times Square tourist trap restaurant where white waitresses take orders for a staff of mostly undocumented migrants
Our readers on their pick of 2024’s best films, music, TV shows and podcasts
Welcome to the last Guide of 2024! I hope you all are enjoying your festive break, and have a better handle on which day it is than I do. As is tradition, after our own roundup of the year’s best culture, we are turning things over to you this week. Here are the films, TV shows, music, performances, and podcasts that wowed you in 2024.Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions and sorry if we weren’t able to include yours. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas break, and see you on the other side of the new year, for our 2025 preview next Friday!Film“I’m not sure it will get the recognition it deserves when awards season rolls around, but Love Lies Bleeding was the best film I saw in 2024
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Katt Williams, crypto and cat ladies: 2024 was the year of unexpected second chances
From comedy to courtroom drama, if you thought you’d seen it all before, that’s because this year … you hadIf 2024 was defined by anything, it was a distinct feeling of deja vu. Donald Trump ran and won, Death Cab and Janet Jackson headlined music festivals, and aesthetes on social media lusted after Windows Vista design language circa 2007. Same old, same old – almost. Because 2024 was also the year of unexpected second chances: in some very special cases, those who suffered a fall from grace or otherwise unfortunate first run in the spotlight got another shot at glory. Call it a comeback, a redemption, or deja vu all over again … for better or worse, it was their year once more
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