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KABUL: The UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) voiced concerns over rise in violence against children, saying that 27 children were killed and 130 others wounded within past 72 hours of violence nationwide.
The UN agency said in a statement on Monday that called on the mediation component to “uphold the warring parties to their international obligations to children.”
“In the last 72 hours, 20 children have been killed and 130 children have been injured in Kandahar province; 2 children were killed and 3 were injured in Khost province; and in Paktia province, 5 children were killed and 3 were injured,” the statement added.
The UN agency also expressed concerns over increasingly recruitment of underage into the conflict by armed groups. “Many other boys and girls are deeply traumatized as they witness atrocities committed against their families and others in their communities,” the organization said.
The statement stressed that children should not pay for the ragging violence and that only a complete end of hostilities would pave a protection for the children.
“As long as the conflict rage, children’s right to thrive is compromised; their futures jeopardized, and their contributions to their nation’s prospects diminished,” the statement added.
“These children are much loved and longed-for daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends. All of them are children whose right to protection, under international humanitarian law, has been disregarded by warring parties.”
This comes as clashes have been escalated across Afghanistan as the Taliban ramp up offensives and overrun a number of key provincial capitals in north and south of Afghanistan.
