UNITED NATIONS: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Afghanistan Fran Equiza has said that roughly 90 per cent of children in the impoverished country were on the brink of poverty as they were bearing the brunt of the destruction caused by the decades-long war.
Speaking to journalists in New York, Equiza said that as the deeply troubled Afghanistan was grappling with humanitarian catastrophe, egregious human rights abuses, and climate-related disasters, world powers have forgotten that the children were facing a rights crisis.
He warned that the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse with each passing day.
This year, nearly 2.3 million Afghan girls and boys were likely to face severe malnutrition. Of these, 875,000 will require treatment for grave and acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.
UNICEF concerned over women’s plight
According to the UNICEF official, nearly 840,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers were expected to experience severe malnutrition, endangering their ability to give their babies the required start in life.
Equiza further said that although war has mostly stopped, decades of violence mean that every day, the rights of children were violated in the most serious ways.
He said that Afghanistan was among the most weapons-contaminated nations in the world, and most of the children were being most affected.
He cited initial data which suggested that 134 kids were killed or maimed by explosions between January and March 2023.
He said that this is the reality of the intensifying danger faced by Afghan kids as they explore regions that were previously inaccessible due to war.
Equiza said that many of those maimed and killed are kids collecting scrap metal to sell. Because that is what poverty always does. It compels parents to send their children to work.
Meanwhile, around 1.6 million Afghan children – some as young as 6 years- were trapped in child labour, working in risky conditions to assist their parents feed their families. –APP
