The number of refugees in the world has now exceeded 70 million. That is the highest figure since World War II, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR.
People are fleeing from war, from persecution and from the consequences of climate change, the German branch of the UNHCR said in a press release on Sunday.
The SOS Children’s Villages Organization says that 12,000 children were killed or injured in 2018. Thousands more have also been abducted and recruited as child soldiers, while hundreds of thousands of others are severely traumatized.
The highest numbers of children killed or injured come from Afghanistan (3,062), Syria (1,854) and Yemen (1,698).
And these are just cases that are registered. The real numbers are probably much higher, says Teresa Ngigi, chief psychologist at SOS Children’s Villages.
She says the reports only from recent weeks about dead and wounded children in Syria, Yemen and Sudan only confirm that children’s suffering in war and conflict continues.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
