Some 25.8 million children were displaced by internal conflict and violence
Overall, an estimated 43.3 million were forcibly displaced across the world through 2022. Photo: iStock Extreme weather events around the world, including unprecedented floods in Pakistan and the drought in the Horn of Africa drought, led to 12 million displacements of children in 2022, according to a new report by UNICEF.
Overall, an estimated 43.3 million were forcibly displaced across the world by the end of 2022 — 40 per cent of the total population of displaced individuals, according to the latest data by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Of them, some 25.8 million children were displaced by internal conflict and violence, noted UNICEF in its estimates released June 13, 2023.
The report said 940,000 children have already been displaced due to the conflict in Sudan.
The number of refugee and asylum-seeking children worldwide also reached a new high of 17.5 million by the end of last year, according to UNICEF.
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine forced more than two million Ukrainian children to flee the country and displaced over a million children inside Ukraine, according to the estimates.
Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, said:
For more than a decade, the number of children forced to flee their homes has risen at an alarming rate, and our global capacity to respond remains under serious strain. The increase is in step with the consistent onslaught of conflict, crises and climate disasters around the world.
The number of people displaced by disasters rose by 40 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, according to The Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023 released in May 2023.
The Horn of Africa region is exposed to severe climatic shocks triggered by the El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon and climate change. In 2022, an estimated 2.8 million people were displaced by drought from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Unprecedented floods washed away whole villages and infrastructure in all four of Pakistan’s provinces in the monsoon of 2022, uprooting more than 3.4 million children from their homes.
The report pointed out that most displaced children will spend their entire childhood in displacement. Refugee and internally displaced children are among the most vulnerable, many of whom are denied access to education and healthcare.
UNICEF is calling on governments to leave no child behind by strengthening national education, health, child protection and social protection systems to include displaced children without discrimination.
The UN body also urged states to invest in national child protection systems to better protect children on the move at risk from exploitation and violence, particularly unaccompanied children.
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