Today Unicef has launched an appeal to reach around 94 million children who suffer the consequences of wars, disasters and climate change in 155 countries by 2024. The United Nations Children's Fund has quantified the sum necessary to urgently respond to this group at 8.6 billion euros.
Unicef warns that “an overstretched humanitarian system, also facing reduced donor funding, is trying to respond to the magnitude of these crises; “It is often acted upon when lives, livelihoods and safety nets have already been destroyed.” It also notes in a report presented today that “even when funds are available, they are often distributed unevenly, across different emergency situations, and lack the flexibility to meet rapidly changing needs on the ground.”
The UN agency reviews the bloodiest crises whose victims require its action. From Palestine to Afghanistan, South Sudan, Haiti or Somalia. In the Gaza Strip, between October 7 and October 11, a minimum of 18,205 Palestinians have died, of which 70% were children and women, to which 49,645 people were injured, according to the latest published data. by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The persistent violence in Haiti has fueled gender violence “to levels never seen before” in a country where three million minors require humanitarian assistance to survive. Just like the more than four million children who migrate with their families through Central America. In Somalia, with 3.8 million people displaced by insecurity and climate change, a million people could be one step away from famine. Also in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, nearly 15 million minors are victims of the escalation of fighting, epidemics and sexual violence.
Women and girls are the main victims in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime attacks freedoms and limits education, work and access to public services to the female population.
The 8.6 billion euros that Unicef wants to raise are expected to be allocated to education, water and food supply, health care and protection measures, mainly. The UN estimates that 500 million children survive in areas suffering from intense armed conflict and food poverty.
