War kills over 100,000 babies a year: Save the Children
Munich, Feb 15: At least 1,00,000 babies die every year because of armed conflict and its impact, from hunger to denial of aid, Save the Children International said on Friday.
In the 10 worst-hit countries, a conservative estimate of 550,000 infants died as a result of fighting between 2013 and 2017.
They succumbed to war and its effects, among them hunger, damage to hospitals and infrastructure, a lack of access to health care and sanitation and the denial of aid.
It said children face the threat of being killed or maimed, recruited by armed groups, abducted or falling victim to sexual violence.
"Almost one in five children are living in areas impacted by conflict -- more than at any time in the past two decades," said the charity's CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt in a statement.
"The number of children being killed or maimed has more than tripled, and we are seeing an alarming increase in the use of aid as a weapon of war," she said on releasing the report at the Munich Security Conference.
Save the Children said a study it had commissioned from the Peace Research Institute Oslo had found that 420 million children were living in conflict-affected areas in 2017.
This represents 18 percent of all children worldwide and was up by 30 million from the previous year.
The worst-hit countries were Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The total number of deaths from indirect effects over the five-year period jumped to 870,000 when all children under the age of five were included, the charity said.
It also issued a list of recommendations to help protect children, from steps such as committing to a minimum age of 18 for military recruitment to the avoidance of using explosive weapons in populated areas.
Thorning-Schmidt said the rising number of child casualties was very worrying.
"It is shocking that in the 21st century we are going backwards on principles and moral standards that are so simple children and civilians should never be targeted."
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People taught lesson to those who were talking about changing Constitution: Pawar
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Maharashtra) (PTI): NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said the country taught a lesson to those who were talking about changing the Constitution.
He was speaking at the unveiling of the Urdu translation of English book "Padmavibhushan Sharad Pawar - The great Enigma" by Sheshrao Chavan here.
The political situation in the country should change, Pawar said, adding, "We should think where we are heading. We have to see that the country does not fall in the wrong hands."
Four months ago (during the Lok Sabha election campaign), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party colleagues made statements that were not in national interest, the NCP (SP) chief said, referring to BJP leader Ananthkumar Hegde's controversial remark that they needed 400-plus seats to amend the Constitution.
"It is a good thing that the people taught a lesson to those who talked about changing the Constitution," Pawar said.
He also hit back at Union minister Amit Shah who recently called him "ringleader of corrupt people".
"A week ago, Amit Shah said that Sharad Pawar is the ringleader of all the corrupt people in the country. Earlier, when he was in Gujarat, he used the law in the wrong manner. For that the Supreme Court externed him from Gujarat. The one who was externed by the Supreme Court is holding charge of the Union Home Ministry now," Pawar said.
Shah was discharged in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case in 2014.
