United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, that its latest report indicated that conflict and violence in northeast led to the displacement of 1.9 million people in 2019, with 60 percent of them being children under the age of five.
UNICEF said that, globally, an estimated 19 million children, more than ever before, were living in displacement within their own countries due to conflict and violence in 2019, some of them for years.
According to the report, there are 12 million new displacement of children in 2019 globally. While 3.8 million of them were caused by conflict and violence, 8.2 million were caused by disasters linked to weather-related events like flooding and storms.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said the report titled, ‘Lost at Home’, examined the risks and challenges internally displaced children face, and the urgent actions needed to protect them.
He said: “As COVID-19 continue to spread around the world, these children are among the most vulnerable to its direct and indirect impacts. Hundreds of thousands of children in northeast Nigeria are living in the shadow of conflict and now in the increasingly challenging shadow of a global pandemic and its potential socio-economic aftermath.”
Hawkins said that when a new crisis like COVID-19 pandemic emerges, displaced children are most vulnerable and the gaps in ability to keep them safe are even more stark, hence the need for collaborations to keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected.
He said: “The COVID-19 pandemic is making a critical situation for displaced children and families around the world even worse. They often live in overcrowded camps or informal settlements where access to basic hygiene and health services are limited, and where physical distancing is not possible. The situation in north-east pose a particular challenge to containing the possible spread of diseases like COVID-19.
“These children lack access to basic services, and are at risk of exposure to violence, exploitation, abuse and trafficking. They are also at risk of child labour, child marriage and family separation, which all pose direct threats to their health and safety.”
He disclosed that UNICEF and partners are currently working to protect displaced children in north-east Nigeria through critical health and nutrition services, providing access to life-saving water, sanitation and hygiene services through accelerated construction of facilities, and adapted solutions to continuing education, including the provision of radios for distance learning while schools are closed.
“What we really need now are strategic investments and a united effort from government, civil society, private sector, humanitarian actors and children themselves to find solutions that can protect them from the effects of displacement,” said Peter Hawkins. (Daily Sun)
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