By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday said at least ten million children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are in “extreme jeopardy” and desperately need humanitarian assistance, attributing it to the worsening violence in the region.
According to the UN children’s agency, the current figure is twice as many as in 2020, while a additional four million children are at risk in neighbouring west African countries as battles between armed groups and security forces spill across borders.
“Children are increasingly caught up in the armed conflict, as victims of intensifying military clashes, or targeted by non-state armed groups,” Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s regional director for west and central Africa, said in a statement.
“The year 2022 was particularly violent for children in the central Sahel. All parties to the conflict need to urgently stop attacks both on children, and their schools, health centres, and homes.”
Armed groups who challenge western education systematically burn and loot schools, and threaten to abduct or kill teachers in many Central Sahel countries.
It is reported that more than 8,300 schools have shut down across the three countries because they were directly targeted, while teachers have fled. Parents have been displaced while many others are afraid of sending their children to school.
UNICEF said the violence was spreading from the central Sahel into the northern regions, including Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo, which are remote communities where children have very limited access to protection and services.
In 2022, UNICEF received only a third of the $391 million it was seeking in its central Sahel appeal.
In 2023, it has appealed for $473.8 million for its humanitarian response plan in the central Sahel and neighbouring coastal countries.
The crisis needs long-term investment to foster “social cohesion, sustainable development, and a better future for children,” Poirier said.
