One in five children across MENA needs humanitarian aid — report

AMMAN — Nearly one in five children across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) needs immediate humanitarian assistance, according to the UNICEF report titled “28.2 million Children in Need” which was released on Monday.

Almost 8 million Syrian children require humanitarian assistance inside Syria and in refugee-hosting countries, a figure up from half a million in 2012, the report indicated.

“This report is utterly relevant to Jordan because, out of these 8 million Syrian children, a large number encompasses refugees living inside Jordan,” Juliette Touma, UNICEF Regional Chief of Communication, told The Jordan Times in a phone interview on Monday. 

“It is a sad figure that shows we have come to the worst point ever for children in the region,” she added noting that, “since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, UNICEF had to step up its humanitarian response in the country”. 

In the face of regional crises in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Palestine, millions of families were forced to flee their homes — some multiple times and under fire. 

Children have been the first and most hardly hit victims of years of violence, displacement and lack of basic services since civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, energy, water, sanitation and hygiene installations have often been targets of attacks, the report stated, noting that children are the most at risk of diseases and malnutrition in these situations. 

“Progress achieved in the past decade is now at risk of being completely reversed in the near future,” Touma said, highlighting that “with 20 per cent of the kids in the region affected by conflict, and therefore included in the humanitarian aid system, the development of the region is also greatly impacted”.

For Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director: “With no end in sight to these conflicts and with families’ dwindling financial resources, many have no choice but to send their children to work or marry their daughters early. The number of children affiliated with the fighting has more than doubled,” a statement quoted him as saying.

Commenting on the report, he concluded: “Children in the Middle East and North Africa region have undergone unprecedented levels of violence and witnessed horrors that no one should witness. World leaders must do much more to put an end to violence for the sake of boys and girls and their future.”