Category: Save The Children

Source: Save The Children

KHARTOUM, 29 August 2023 – Save the Children is urging the leaders of the warring parties in Sudan to take greater measures to protect civilians, following the deaths of 39 people – mostly women and children – in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, on Tuesday.

The civilians were killed when shelling hit their homes, according to medics and witnesses, with images posted online showing dozens of bodies on the ground covered in shrouds. At least 50,000 people have already fled Nyala in the past three weeks.

Dr. Arif Noor, Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, said:

“We are heartbroken yet more innocent lives have been lost in this brutal conflict. There is no excuse for children being killed and caught up in this adult war.

“Explosives such as those used in Nyala are one of the many ways children are being killed and injured in Sudan. Rockets, mortars, grenades, mines and improvised explosive devices are all causing children to suffer uniquely, and they and are far more likely to die from blast wounds than adult casualties.

“More needs to be done by the international community to pressure the warring parties to uphold the commitments they made in Jeddah in May 2023 where they declared to the world, they would comply with international law not to harm children and their families.

“The parties to the conflict must take all necessary action to minimise civilian harm – something that is not happening in Sudan currently, thus risking the lives of millions of children.”

At least 435 children have been reported killed in the conflict, and at least 2,025 children injured, although these figures are an underestimate and the true toll likely to be far higher.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983. In 2022, Save the Children directly reached 2.1 million people, including 1.5 million children, with programming focused on child protection, access to quality education, health and nutrition support and responding to emergencies. 

—ENDS– 

For more information please contact:

For out of hours media requests please email media@savethechildren.org.uk or +44 (0) 7831 650409

Source: Save The Children

Ahmad* joined Save the Children in 2021. He is a nurse with Save the Children’s Mobile Health Team and provides treatment for children and communities in very remote areas. Save the Children.

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It has been two years since the Taliban regained control in Afghanistan. During this time, Afghans have been pushed further and further off the radar of the rest of the world – despite conditions for children and communities getting more and more severe.

In my job as a nutrition nurse in a Mobile Health Team run by Save the Children, my colleagues and I travel to communities that do not have easy access to healthcare. We screen patients for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) by measuring their height and weight and provide treatment accordingly – usually ready to use supplementary food (RUTF) once every two weeks.

The number of children I see in our health facilities with malnutrition has skyrocketed by 50% since I started. Over the past two years, the economic crisis and drought have driven families to the brink. Many survive on tea and bread – because it’s all they can afford. 

Malnutrition is a deadly condition that eats a child up and spits out a frail, lifeless child. If you compare a regular child with one who has malnutrition, you will see what I mean. Malnourished children become weak and thin; they become skin and bone because the condition literally dissolves their muscles.

A regular child can usually get by at school, but this is so hard for a malnourished child. If a mother says to her child, “We don’t have anything to eat”, this affects their mental health. Even if they grow physically, they often won’t have self-confidence and will feel anxious about how to feed. Being told you are poor and hungry is not good for any child.

As a father of three children, this makes me shudder. And while we do what we can in the mobile health team, the scale of this crisis is so vast, and we do not have enough medicine and staff to help everyone in need.

Over the past two years, things have really changed. There are more and more people without jobs in the villages we visit, and poverty has increased. When families cannot afford to provide the food their children need, the children become malnourished.

Before the Taliban regained control, the mobile health team I work with used to register 30-35 malnourished children a month – but this figure is now between 60 and 70.

This really is a plague on children – and one of the biggest causes is the drought. Across Afghanistan, most people earn their living from agriculture, but this is literally drying up due to climate change.

In one village, there is a river that has always been critical to the survival of the entire community. But in recent years, the water has stopped completely.

Sahida visiting Save the Children’s Mobile Health team with her twins, Nahida and Nadira (8 months old) for a malnutrition screening. Save the Children

This year, people have also had to deal with a horrible locust infestation that has destroyed crops. All these things on top of each other have put basic human needs further and further out of reach for people.

Despite it getting harder for this country to be self-sufficient, we have also seen cuts to lifesaving aid from aid agencies in some of these villages. This means families simply have very little to eat.

One story that I will never forget is of a woman who came to us with two children, both of whom had SAM. One of them we treated, but the other had another medical condition as well, so we referred them to the hospital.

The next time we saw this mother and asked about her child, she replied with her eyes full of tears:

“I lost one of my children. I decided to go to the hospital the next day, but she couldn’t make it an extra day and died during the night.”

This was the saddest day of my life.

It is also heartbreaking to see how girls, in particular, are most deprived. Because of the very traditional culture of some of the villages we work in, many parents prioritise their sons over their daughters.

It is obvious that parents give their sons more nutritious food than their daughters – if we look at our register, we have more malnourished girls than boys. And there are so many we don’t know about: mothers often bring their sons to us for checkups but leave their daughters at home.

But it’s not all sad – we cure children on a daily basis, and if they are not malnourished then we support their parents with advice and guidance to keep them healthy.

Of course, in these circumstances, that can be an uphill struggle, but all the same, because we can do this, families in the villages we visit are – on the whole – doing better than other villages that do not have access to our services.

While I have had the saddest days of my life in this job, I have also had the happiest. The same mother whose child tragically died brought her other two children to us and we managed to cure them both.

Life is exceptionally hard in Afghanistan – but we need to remember the precious joy in the changes we can make and the profound impact this has on human lives. If we can do that, we can keep going for the children of tomorrow.

*Name changed to protect identity

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Source: Save The Children

GENEVA, 28 August 2023 – Governments will need to recognise that inaction on the climate crisis is a child rights’ violation, factor environmental concerns into their efforts to protect and fulfill children’s rights, and empower and protect child activists, thanks to landmark new UN document published today.

In a major step for the world’s 2.4 billion children now currently experiencing the climate emergency, the new document recognizes children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This is a result of scores of children across the world who have been calling for change, Save the Children said.

In this new text, “General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change”, the Committee of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that:

• The triple planetary crisis (pollution, climate crisis and biodiversity loss) constitute a child rights violation;
• Environmental degradation affects every aspect of children’s lives and threatens their future;
• Inaction by governments and businesses to address the environmental crisis results in child rights violation and the deprivation of their future;
• Children are not just passive victims, as demonstrated by their strong movement globally.

Through providing guidelines to national governments that have ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Committee is now calling on these governments to:

• Integrate environmental and climate issues in their work towards the fulfilment of every other children’s right;
• Empower children and protect child campaigners and activists, demanding, among other things, that they are given access to courts and that they are protected from retaliation when they participate in activism;
• Inform children of environmental considerations and include them in decision-making processes that will affect their lives;
• Regulate business activities to ensure that they follow due diligence procedures that integrate children’s rights impact assessments into their operations.

Olt, 16, from Kosovo, is a member of child-led group Respect our Rights, which is supported by Save the Children. Olt is one of the children consulted by the Committee about this decision, and said during the campaign: “Science proves that the earth is dying and adults need to hear us because we are more aware of the damage that they have done to our world. So, it is very important to listen because our opinion is valid no matter the age, no matter who, no matter where we are from, everyone’s opinion is valid and we see the world from a different perspective than adults.”

“If I could tell world leaders something that they need to do and advice is take action now, literally now, because there is not a lot of time to take action. Our world is dying and there is so little time for us to help it, to save it. And if we don’t want our kind to go extinct, we must take action now.”

Across the world, the rate at which children are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis is escalating. Save the Children’s report published with climate researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Born into the climate crisis: why we must act now to secure children’s rights, found that, based on the original Paris agreement pledges, children across the world will face far more climate impacts such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, cyclones and crop failures than their grandparents – particularly those in many low and middle income countries.

Michel Anglade, Director of Save the Children’s Advocacy Office in Geneva, said: “Over the past few years, children have been speaking out and forcing us to reckon with the impact of our lifestyles on the planet and, in turn, on the rights, lives and wellbeing of children and future generations. Children tell us how they and their friends are going hungry due to crop failures; how flooding prevents them from going to school – and they need us to act urgently.

“This landmark document – a response to the change spurred by children across the world – will hopefully prompt states to incorporate environmental and climate change concerns into their legislation, regulate businesses, and allow children to continue to demand climate justice.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

This “General Comment” was drafted by the Committee of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, composed of 18 independent experts who evaluate the work of governments on children’s rights. This document is a response by the UN to the wide call of children for the international community to react to current environmental devastation and climate change.

This Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989 and ratified by 196 states, outlines universal children’s rights such as the right to life, survival and development. A General Comment provides guidance on what these rights imply for a specific topic or area of legislation. The now published “General Comment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change”, explicitly addresses the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution, outlining countermeasures to protect the lives and life perspectives of children.

—ENDS–

For more information please contact:

 

For out of hours media requests please email media@savethechildren.org.uk or +44 (0) 7831 650409

Source: Save The Children

A container filled with rice that Mahbuba*, 31, purchased with her food rations in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, 24 Aug 2023 – Six years after 750,000 Rohingya people fled violence in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh, the health and wellbeing of more than half a million children is at risk due to recent drastic cuts in food assistance, Save the Children said.

Rohingya refugees in camps in Cox’s Bazar – the world’s largest refugee settlement – now have a third less food than five months ago – and the child rights organisation fears people will be pushed further into hunger and illness without urgent additional funding.

Rohingya refugees have told Save the Children they fear they could even starve, with one 12-year-old boy saying he has not eaten a piece of fruit in three months. Parents say they regularly go without food to feed their children and cannot sleep at night due to anxiety about how their families will survive.

Since March 2023, the World Food Programme has been forced to cut food assistance to the one million refugees in the camps by a third – to just US$8 per month or US$0.27 per day – due to a massive funding shortfall.  [1] The Rohingya refugees rely almost entirely on food aid to survive as they are not allowed to leave the camps or formally work.

In a recent assessment, several Rohingya refugee families told Save the Children how the US$0.27 a day only buys rice and a litre of oil and how their children are falling sick from the severe shortage of nutritious and diverse foods, like meat, eggs or vegetables.

Even before the first food ration cuts, 45% of Rohingya families were not eating a sufficient diet and malnutrition was widespread in the camps, with 40% of children experiencing stunted growth. [2]

After six years, conditions in the squalid, overcrowded camps are dire and inhabitants are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of the worsening climate crisis.

Nearly 37,000 Rohingya refugees saw their flimsy bamboo shelters damaged or destroyed when Cyclone Mocha struck the camps in May.[3] Recent torrential rains and landslides destroyed even more homes and killed at least four refugees, including a child and her mother. Diseases are easily spread. Scabies cases are currently increasing with more than 40% of people affected. [4]

Children are increasingly victims of physical violence as the lack of money and food impacts families. Physical abuse has accounted for more than a quarter of all cases reported to Save the Children’s child protection team this year. Children also live in fear of armed gangs who engage in drug smuggling and human trafficking. [5]

Rakib*, 12, shares a shelter with his mother Mahbuba* and sister. Six years ago, his father was shot and killed in the violence in Myanmar.

“We used to eat fresh fish in our meals before (the food cuts). Now we can’t even buy enough lentils. Sometimes I feel angry and sad when I see just only rice for a meal.”

Mahbuba* is not allowed to leave the camp to earn money and is terrified that the food assistance her family relies on could be cut even further:

“We are hearing rumours that this will be cut down to US$6 [per month] soon. If that happens, then we will have no choice except starve to death. When I go to collect rice from the food assistance outlets, I feel like crying at having such a tiny amount.”

Zia*, 12, a Rohingya refugee child, said: “Last time I had fruit was three months ago. We can’t have good food anymore. We can only afford chicken once a month.”

Zia’s 5-year-old sister, Antora*, was in hospital for 2 months after losing weight and developing an infection.

“During the two months there, they gave us nutrition support, she recovered andgot well,” said their mother, Mehrun Nesa*. “But later on, when wecould not provide her balanced diet, she fell ill again.” 

After six years as refugees, their desperation is increasing. Thousands have used people traffickers to embark on perilous boat journeys to Malaysia and Indonesia, journeys that have cost thousands of lives.[6]  There are fears that families will resort to any means to live, including child labour and child marriage.

Shaheen Chughtai, Save the Children’s Country Director in Bangladesh, said:

“After six years, there is no end in sight for the misery Rohingya refugees are having to endure. Half a million children’s lives are at risk from the food cuts. They – and their families – have lost all hope.

“The humanitarian response is at breaking point. The UN’s 2023 humanitarian response plan for the Rohingya refugees is only 30% funded. [7] This is a children’s crisis, and those children are in danger of becoming a lost generation.

“They cannot remain stateless and unprotected, living their lives in isolated limbo.  The international community should demonstrate it has not turned its back on them – and to properly fund the humanitarian programmes in the camps.

“Most Rohingya refugees say they want to go back to their homes when conditions allow for a safe, dignified and voluntary return with a guarantee that their rights will be upheld. Until that happens, we must move beyond using humanitarian aid as a plaster. After six years, we cannot continue with a short term approach. The international community must show now that it has not forgotten the Rohingya refugees.”

*  Names changed to protect identity

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Save the Children conducted a qualitative study in the Cox’s Bazar camps from 26-31 July 2023.  We spoke to 93 people which included 39 children.

Save the Children is one of the leading international NGOs working in Cox’s Bazar and has been there since 2012. It has reached about 600,000 Rohingya refugees, including more than 320,000 children, since the response began in 2017.

Save the Children, with the support of the Bangladesh government, is running over 100 centres that support children’s learning and well-being in their mother tongue – Rohingya. Now we are helping these children learn Burmese by using the Myanmar curriculum.

 [1] UN in Bangladesh appeals for immediate funding as Rohingya refugees face new cuts in food aid | United Nations in Bangladesh

2 https://www.wfp.org/news/lack-funds-forces-wfp-cut-rations-rohingya-bangladesh

3 https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/unicef-bangladesh-humanitarian-situation-report-no-64-january-june-2023

4 https://msfsouthasia.org/bangladesh-scabies-in-rohingya-refugee-camps/

5 https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/13/bangladesh-spiraling-violence-against-rohingya-refugees

6  https://www.unhcr.org/news/unhcr-seeks-comprehensive-regional-response-address-rise-deadly-south-east-asia-sea-journeys

7 https://fts.unocha.org/appeals/1143/summary

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For further enquiries please contact:

We have Shaheen Chughtai available as a spokesperson.

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Source: Save The Children

Ayaz, 1,  Fahim, 12, Anisa, 11, Salema, 8, Maleka, 6, and Jesmin, 4, posing for a photo in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Saddam Hosen / Save the Children.

Context: In 2017 hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fled violence in Rakhine state in Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh. Most ended up in Cox’s Bazar, which was already hosting refugees from previous waves of displacement. Cox’s Bazar is now the world’s largest refugee camp.

In Mahbuba’s own words

“I’ve worked on Save the Children’s refugee response in Cox’s Bazar since 2017 and I’ve seen some things getting better for the children in the camps – and some things far worse.

The Rohingya refugee arrivals from 2017 have endured six years of disasters in the camps, including cyclones, floods and landslides. Their shelters are slightly less flimsy than they were in 2017.  They are mostly made of bamboo and plastic sheets, so they easily get damaged or destroyed in extreme weather. There have also been many fires over the years, which quickly sweep through people’s homes, which are tightly packed together. It is of course still the world’s largest refugee camp – and it’s still really overcrowded.

The Rohingya refugees were dealt a further blow in February this year when the World Food Programme (WFP) reduced food rations due to funding cuts. It came at a time when food prices were rising in Bangladesh and as a result, many families across the camps are experiencing food insecurity. I’ve spoken to desperate people who can no longer afford nutritious food, such as vegetables and lentils. Meat is out of the question for most. My nutrition colleagues are seeing more cases of malnourished children and pregnant women in recent months than they have for a long time.

Antora, 5, helps her mother prepare a meal with their food rations in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Rubina Alee / Save the Children.

Faced with such dire circumstances, my team – which is tasked with protecting children from direct harm – is hearing more and more cases of families resorting to dangerous coping mechanisms, such as marrying off their girls before they are of age. Many families see this as having one less mouth to feed when food is scarce. My team is also seeing a concerning rise in cases of child labour. It’s incredibly sad to see children robbed of their childhoods in this way.

Over the past year, there has been an increase in incidences of violence in the camps, including clashes between armed groups. There’s also a marked increase in gender-based violence. There have been cases of gangs raping and sexually abusing Rohingya women, but it’s often not reported.

My colleagues saw an increase in violence in refugee homes during the COVID 19 pandemic when people were quarantining with their families. We are still hearing cases of fathers and husbands becoming hostile and sometimes violent toward their partners and children, and mothers punishing their children more harshly as a negative coping mechanism during the home confinement. 

Many children have witnessed or experienced violence themselves. They are understandably upset and afraid. My team provides children with psychological first aid, psychosocial support and counselling, so they can process their experiences in a safe environment. Our social workers/case worker also support women and girls who have experienced sexual violence, as well as supporting them to receive essential health services.

Living in a refugee camp for years on end takes a psychological toll as people face uncertain futures. It’s also difficult for people to depend almost entirely on humanitarian aid.

But that’s not to say that there aren’t any positives to report.

We used to see many cases of children getting lost or going missing. There are now far fewer cases of unaccompanied children as we can use our strong networks across the camps to quickly locate lost children and reunite them with their families.

I’ve personally found that children are now more aware of their rights which is really heartening. They have the skills to speak up and protect themselves from harm. They have a voice and they can say no.

There are also positives in terms of refugees’ resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Refugees aren’t allowed to leave the camps to work outside in the host community, but there is a level of small-scalebusiness in the camps. I’ve seen women gaining confidence to set up small businesses. I know a very young woman who set up a shop beside her house, selling vegetables and snacks.

There’s another young woman whose story stays with me. When she was a child, my colleagues discouraged her parents from arranging a marriage. She’s now 18 years old and a volunteer with a big NGO here. Last week she told me she has been speaking to other families about the dangers of child marriage.

These stories give me some hope, but the humanitarian needs remain truly enormous.

Bangladesh will continue to bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and I fear many more homes and lives will be lost in Cox’s Bazar. Rohingya people are living in appalling and unsafe conditions. Six years on, more funding is desperately needed. The world must not turn its back on the one million Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar.

——–

Notes

The Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar is suffering from acute food insecurity, defined as IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) despite the presence of significant assistance. Additionally, the presence of IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) population highlights additional needs and inability to meet their essential needs, according to IPC

95% of all Rohingya households are moderately to highly vulnerable and remain entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance, similar to 2020 (96%), according to 2023 Bangladesh Humanitarian Response Plan

The Global Acute Malnutrition rate for Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh stands at 12 percent – just below the 15 percent WHO ‘Emergency’ threshold but still categorized as ‘Serious’. Some 40 percent of children have stunted growth and 40 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are anaemic – all this is before the World Food Programme food ration cut, according to the World Health Organisation.

Save the Children

Save the Children has been working in Cox’s Bazar since 2012 and increased activities significantly following the 2017 exodus of refugees to Bangladesh with programmes in education, health and nutrition, food, water, shelter and child protection services. Following disasters such as landslides and fires, Save the Children provides emergency assistance to children and their families, including temporary shelter in our learning spaces.

——–

For further enquiries please contact:

–          Daphnee Cook Daphnee.cook@savethechildren.org / +254 717 524 904 (in Nairobi)

–          Rachel Thompson, Rachel.Thompson@savethechildren.org

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Source: Save The Children

The Impact on Families & Children

Since 2017, Rohingya refugee children have gone without formal education, parents and caregivers have gone without employment, and all refugees have become more vulnerable to injury from fires, flooding, and rising insecurity.

As a result, many families are reliant on food rations and need access to safe water and healthcare.

Food assistance for the Rohingya refugees has been cut by a third in just 5 months – it’s now only $8 a month per person, or $0.27 cents a day. This is because of a massive funding shortfall for the World Food Programme.

The 500,000 Rohingya children living in Cox’s Bazar are worried about their futures. They need hope.

Now is the time to show them that the international community has not turned its back on them. Read the stories of Sultana*, Rakib*, Ayaz* and Antora*.

Note: All text written in italics are direct quotes.

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Source: Save The Children

BRUSSELS, 23 August 2023 – European policymakers must take urgent action to create safe routes for migrants, following devastating reports that 18 people, including two children, were killed this week in wildfires in northern Greece, said Save the Children.

Federica Toscano, Senior Advocacy Advisor for Children on the Move at Save the Children Europe, said:

“Children continue to die – at sea and on land – as they embark on perilous journeys to escape conflict and violence in search of safety in Europe. The EU’s policies of deterrence and externalisation are causing human tragedies at its borders almost daily. The latest tragedy with 18 people killed in Greek wildfire, in an area that is a crossing point for thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe, is no exception.”

“This is a stark reminder of the urgent need for the EU and Member States to prioritise safe paths for families seeking protection in Europe and find effective climate crisis solutions. No child should die because of the way Europe handles pressing challenges it faces. Safe routes save lives.”

Save the Children runs programmes in many European countries, including close to border areas and disembarkation points, focusing on emergency assistance, child protection, information and psychosocial support, training and education.

ENDS

For further enquiries please contact:

Source: Save The Children

Damages to the block of flats hit by missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on July 31, 2023. More content available here and here

KYIV, 22 August 2023 – Child casualties in Ukraine increased by more than 7% between May to August compared to the previous four months as air and drone attacks tripled, with no end to the danger faced by children after 18 months of war, Save the Children said today. 

Since May 2023, a total of 148 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine, bringing the number of child casualties since the escalation of war on 24 Feb last year to more than 1,700, according to UN data. This includes 545 deaths, with 24 children killed this summer.

The month of June was the deadliest so far this year for children with 11 children killed and 43 more injured. According to verified UN data,[1] there was an increase in all civilian casualties in Ukraine in between 1 May and 13 August with June recording the highest number of total civilian casualties in 2023 at 865.

Conflict analytics reports showed that between Jan 1- April 30 there were 459 air and drone strikes. This rose to 1,432 between 1 May and 4 August, with about 95% of these attacks in populated areas. 

In one such attack on the morning of 31 July, a missile hit an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih, Southern Dnipro, destroying five storeys of a high-rise building.  A 10-year-old girl and her mother were killed in the incident, with more than 80 further reported casualties, including seven injured children.  

Lyudmyla’s* apartment was one of more than 250 homes damaged in the neighbourhood. All the windows of her family’s home were blown out by the explosion and the noise woke up her 18-year-old grandson.  

“He was shocked, and rushed outside straight from his bed once he heard the explosion. He could not even change his clothes. He later came back to grab documents and that is when another explosion occurred. He was terrified by such a loud noise,” said Lyudmyla*, 65. 

“My two other grandchildren – aged 11 and 13 – were staying with their mother at a relative’s house. They were just 300 metres away from the explosion. The windows and doors were also blown out at that apartment. Everyone was scared.” 

On 11 August, an 8-year-old boy was killed in Kolomyia, western Ukraine, after a missile struck the back garden of his family home. A family of four was killed by shelling in Kherson region two days later, including a 12-year-old boy and a baby girl just 23 days old. Just last week on 19 August, a six-year-old girl was among the seven people killed and 180 injured in an attack in the northern city of Chernihiv. 

Amjad Yamin, Save the Children’s Advocacy Director in Ukraine, said: 

“Ukraine is 18 months into full-scale war, and there seems to be no reprieve from the perilous circumstances endured by children and families. We have witnessed numerous attacks on populated areas that took the lives of children and their parents, left hundreds of people injured or severely distressed, and damaged or destroyed homes, plunging thousands of families into uncertainty.  

“Since last February, more than 1,700 children have been killed or injured due to unrelenting hostilities. The vast majority of those casualties are attributed to missiles and drones being fired at residential areas. This serves as a grim reminder that explosive weapons should not be used anywhere near populated areas, such as towns and villages.” 

Save the Children is calling on all sides to adhere to obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and ensure that civilians and civilian objects, especially those used by children such as homes, schools, and hospitals, are protected from attack.    

Save the Children has been operating in Ukraine since 2014, delivering humanitarian aid to children and their families affected by hostilities. It is also supporting refugee families across Europe and helping children to access education and other critical services.   

ENDS  

*names are changed to protect identity.

NOTES:

Ukraine: Civilian casualties – 24 February 2022 to 30 June 2023 | OHCHR 

Ukraine: civilian casualty update 31 July 2023 | OHCHR

Ukraine: civilian casualty update 14 August 2023 | OHCHR

For more information please contact:

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for news alerts, quotes, statements and location Vlogs.

 

Source: Save The Children

Damages to the block of flats hit by missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on July 31, 2023. More content available here and here

KYIV, 22 August 2023 – Child casualties in Ukraine increased by more than 16% between May to August compared to the previous four months as air and drone attacks tripled, with no end to the danger faced by children after 18 months of war, Save the Children said today. 

Since May 2023, a total of 151 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine, bringing the number of child casualties since the escalation of war on 24 Feb last year to 1,680, according to UN data. This includes 541 deaths, with 25 children killed this summer. 

The month of June was the deadliest so far this year for children with 12 children killed and 45 more injured. According to verified UN data,¹ there was an increase in all civilian casualties in Ukraine in between 1 May and 13 August with July recording the highest number of total civilian casualties in 2023 at 848. 

Conflict analytics reports showed that between Jan 1- April 30 there were 459 air and drone strikes. This rose to 1,432 between 1 May and 4 August, with about 95% of these attacks in populated areas. 

In one such attack on the morning of 31 July, a missile hit an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih, Southern Dnipro, destroying five storeys of a high-rise building.  A 10-year-old girl and her mother were killed in the incident, with more than 80 further reported casualties, including five injured children.  

Lyudmyla’s* apartment was one of more than 250 homes damaged in the neighbourhood. All the windows of her family’s home were blown out by the explosion and the noise woke up her 18-year-old grandson.  

“He was shocked, and rushed outside straight from his bed once he heard the explosion. He could not even change his clothes. He later came back to grab documents and that is when another explosion occurred. He was terrified by such a loud noise,” said Lyudmyla*, 65. 

“My two other grandchildren – aged 11 and 13 – were staying with their mother at a relative’s house. They were just 300 metres away from the explosion. The windows and doors were also blown out at that apartment. Everyone was scared.” 

On 11 August, an 8-year-old boy was killed in Kolomyia, western Ukraine, after a missile struck the back garden of his family home. A family of four was killed by shelling in Kherson region two days later, including a 12-year-old boy and a baby girl just 23 days old. Just last week on 19 August, a six-year-old girl was among the seven people killed and 180 injured in an attack in the northern city of Chernihiv. 

Amjad Yamin, Save the Children’s Advocacy Director in Ukraine, said: 

“Ukraine is 18 months into full-scale war, and there seems to be no reprieve from the perilous circumstances endured by children and families. We have witnessed numerous attacks on populated areas that took the lives of children and their parents, left hundreds of people injured or severely distressed, and damaged or destroyed homes, plunging thousands of families into uncertainty.  

“Since last February, more than 1,680 children have been killed or injured due to unrelenting hostilities. The vast majority of those casualties are attributed to missiles and drones being fired at residential areas. This serves as a grim reminder that explosive weapons should not be used anywhere near populated areas, such as towns and villages.” 

Save the Children is calling on all sides to adhere to obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and ensure that civilians and civilian objects, especially those used by children such as homes, schools, and hospitals, are protected from attack.    

Save the Children has been operating in Ukraine since 2014, delivering humanitarian aid to children and their families affected by hostilities. It is also supporting refugee families across Europe and helping children to access education and other critical services.   

ENDS  

*names are changed to protect identity.

NOTES:

Ukraine: Civilian casualties – 24 February 2022 to 30 June 2023 | OHCHR 

For more information please contact:

Source: Save The Children

KHARTOUM, 22 August 2023 – At least 498 children in Sudan and likely hundreds more have died from hunger, including two dozen babies in a state orphanage, as critical services run out of food or close,  said Save the Children.

Since the violence broke out in April, Save the Children has been forced to close 57 of its nutrition facilities, with 31,000 children missing out on treatment for malnutrition and related illnesses across the country. In the 108 facilities the agency still operates, therapeutic food stocks are running critically low, with buffer stock, or emergency supplies, now being used in the most extreme cases.

In Gedaref state in eastern Sudan, at least 132 children died from malnutrition between April and July, with 36% of all cases of children admitted to one state hospital with the condition dying from it or related illnesses. The hospital has also reported a significant increase in cases of malnutrition, with children recently displaced from Khartoum and living in squalid camps particularly affected.

In White Nile state, at least 316 children mostly under five, died from malnutrition or associated illnesses between May and July, and over 2,400 cases of children with severe acute malnutrition – the deadliest form of malnutrition – were admitted to nutrition facilities since the beginning of the year.

In Khartoum, at least 50 children, including at least two dozen babies, died of starvation or related illnesses in a state orphanage after fighting prevented staff from accessing the building to care for them.

Even before the conflict started, funding shortages had led to Sudan nearly exhausting its supplies of high-calorie and micronutrient rich peanut pastes, essential for treating malnutrition, including the “Plumpy’Nut” and “Plumpy’Sup” pastes.

In May Sudan’s only factory for manufacturing “Plumpy’Nut” was burned to the ground. The factory, which supplied aid agencies like Save the Children and the World Food Program (WFP), had been producing around 10,000 tons of the paste each year.

Dozens of warehouses storing food for WFP as well as aid organisations like Save the Children have been raided since the start of the conflict, with WFP declaring in May that at least US$14 million of food supplies had been looted. Dozens of WFP trucks are also being delayed at border points, further exacerbating the crisis.

Dr. Arif Noor, Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, said:

“Never did we think we would see children dying from hunger in such numbers, but this is now the reality in Sudan.                                                                                                                                                                

“Seriously ill children are arriving in the arms of desperate mothers and fathers at nutrition centres across the country and our staff have few options on how to treat them. We are seeing children dying from entirely preventable hunger.

“The looting of UN warehouses, the burning of the therapeutic food factory, and the lack of funding have put significant strain on supplies of therapeutic nutritional products across the country

“Our pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears. The funding appeals for Sudan remain only 27% funded, with partners in Sudan still unable to access the much-needed funds.

“With humanitarian access deteriorating on a daily basis, the international community must step up and work to not only increase funding but to find collective solutions to ensure that the much-needed food and assistance can be safely delivered to children and their families across Sudan, including those trapped by the fighting.”

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983. In 2022, Save the Children directly reached 2.1 million people, including 1.5 million children, with programming focused on child protection, access to quality education, health and nutrition support and responding to emergencies. 

NOTES:

– On 12 August 2023 , the Director General of the Children’s Hospital in Gedaref state Dr. Nisreen Abu Gadder said malnutrition diseases had claimed the lives of 132 children, in light of a significant increase in the incidence of the disease in the state and inside the camps sheltering the displaced fleeing the war in Khartoum. The Children’s Hospital recorded 365 cases of malnutrition from the beginning of April to the end of July 2023. A total of 33 deaths were recorded in April, compared to 41 in May, and 24 in June, compared to 34 deaths in July. She said that the death rate among children from malnutrition was 20% of the cases received by the hospital. She pointed to the high incidence of malnutrition in four localities in the state, which are the localities of Al-Mafaza, Qallabat Al-Sharqiyyah, Rural Qala’ Al-Nahil and Qilabat Al-Gharbiyya.

– In 2022 Save the Children supported 57 TSFP (Targeted Supplementary Feeding Program) clinics, with an annual caseload of 31,658 children aged 6-59 months of age. These have now been suspended, with the same number of children no longer receiving 

—ENDS–

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For out of hours media requests please email media@savethechildren.org.uk or +44 (0) 7831 650409