Category: Save The Children

Source: Save The Children

ABUJA, 17 August 2023 – More than 1,680 schoolchildren have been kidnapped in Nigeria since the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State, with fear of attacks stopping some children from ever attending school, said Save the Children.  

In April 2014, the abduction from a school in Chibok made global headlines and sparked the #BringBackOurGirls movement and protests, which attracted public support from celebrities and public figures including Malala Yousafzai, Hillary Clinton, and then First Lady Michelle Obama.  

However new data analysis by Save the Children reveals that attacks on schools have been continuing out the spotlight and highlights the violence that schoolchildren and teachers face across Nigeria.

In addition to the abductions, over 180 schoolchildren were killed and nearly 90 injured in 70 attacks between April 2014 and December 2022, with an estimated 60 school staff kidnapped and 14 killed. Twenty-five school buildings were reportedly destroyed during that period. 

The majority of these attacks took place in North-West Nigeria (49 attacks), followed by North-Central Nigeria (11 attacks).  

These attacks have long-lasting consequences for communities and for children’s access to education, often leading to the mass withdrawal of children from school and school closures. In Katsina state in the North-Western part of the country, nearly 100 schools remain closed due to insecurity, affecting the education of over 30,000 children.  

In the aftermath of attacks, children and communities are left traumatised, and the majority do not receive psychological support.

During focus group discussions with affected communities, Save the Children staff found that many children were too scared to return to school. One girl, who survived the Chibok school attack, said: “I am afraid of being a victim some other day and afraid of dying or rape by the insurgents”.¹ 

Famari Barro, Country Director at Save the Children Nigeria, said more needs to be done to prevent attacks but also to support children and their families in the aftermath.  

“Nearly 10 years after the tragic abduction of the Chibok girls made international headlines, more than 90 of them are still held or missing, and countless children and teachers still live under the threat of violence, forcing many to flee or interrupt their education, sometimes forever.

“The combination of the trauma and loss of education resulting from these attacks is likely to be lifelong unless children are provided with the means and support to recover from the traumatic events they have been through and are able to return to school. It is vital that children’s lives and right to education are protected through the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration across the country.” 

In 2015 Nigeria endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, which seeks to ensure the continuity of safe education during armed conflict and outlines commitments to strengthen the protection of education from attack, but it remains largely unimplemented at the state and community levels. Rural community schools remain vulnerable to attacks.  

Ibrahim Zanna Sunoma, Deputy Speaker of the National Children’s Parliament, Nigeriasaid:  

“We are appealing to the government and other relevant stakeholders to prioritise expanding the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration across the country to ensure that children can learn in a protective environment in schools.  

“Government at all levels should ensure the implementation of the national policy on safety, security and violence-free schools that would prevent education from attacks, more investments and funding should be made in preventing Education from attacks in all 36 States of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).” 

Save the Children has been working in Nigeria since 2001 and responding to the humanitarian crisis since 2014, providing food, clean water, nutrition and protection services, sexual and reproductive health care, and education to families across the region.  

Save the Children is also providing technical support to the government on policy changes and reforms, especially in critical sectors such as health, education, and social protection.   

In 2017, Save the Children launched Schools as Zones of Peace, a project which works with partners in Education in Emergencies Working Group (EIEWG) to support the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration and its guidelines to ensure the protection of education from attack.

Notes to Editor: 

1. Interviewed in December 2021. 

—ENDS–

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Source: Save The Children

Sonia Kush, Ukraine Country Director. Save the Children

“I had been working in Iraq for several months and during the summer of 2003 I was based in Baghdad. We took some security precautions but we moved around relatively freely setting up Save the Children’s programmes and spending a lot of time at the Canal Hotel, which was the centre of the UN operation. The canteen at the Canal Hotel was a popular meeting spot for international and local NGOs, both to eat and to use the Internet.

Only a few days after landing back in the US, the news broke that the Canal Hotel was bombed, claiming the lives of 22 people. It was shocking. It was tragic. People I had been working with died that day, all dedicated professionals who had come to Iraq with a clear purpose to support people affected the conflict. As I watched the terrible scenes unfold on the TV, all I could think of was how courageous and passionate those colleagues were, and what a loss it was for the world that they were gone.

It was a real wake-up call for the humanitarian community, a major turning point. This attack was one of the most lethal in UN history, and it was the first time that a neutral international humanitarian organisation had been deliberately targeted like this. From then on we had to be far more aware of how we were perceived, the threats, and what would require increased levels of security.

This attack marked a new phase with the world changing in the past 20 years for humanitarian workers and the people they support. The number of incidents involving aid workers has more than trebled since 2003 with on average about 450 aid workers killed, injured or kidnapped every year. This creates new challenges for humanitarian workers and their employers who now have to spend more on security and risk mitigation to try to keep their workforce safe.

But one of the main challenges we have right now is access – trying to reach all vulnerable populations, regardless of whose control they live under. This really plays out in conflict settings where you often have different groups controlling different parts of a territory with no guarantee of safe access for aid or aid workers.

The world today is a lot more politicized in terms of sanctions or donor regulations that may make it easier to work in some areas than others. As an independent, neutral, humanitarian organisation wanting to reach all children, we really have to navigate a lot of politics and restrictions to ensure we can reach the most vulnerable, wherever they are.

And sadly it is only getting worse. At times, we have to justify why we need to help people, often faced with questions like why we don’t just ignore this or that group.

We obviously take a side. We take the side of children. Of their rights, of their need for food, education, healthcare and a clean environment. Which, interestingly, often puts us on a path of collision with certain governments or authorities that may not be doing things that benefit their own populations. So how do we be brave and speak out, yet still be able to operate in the same country? That’s an ongoing issue that we constantly deal with in some of the countries where we work.

It is not all bleak. Some things have improved over the past 20 years. Technology, for instance, has changed the way we work. Whether the prevalence of internet and mobile devices, or the use of cash as a response modality, these are widely accepted and the norm now as opposed to 20 years ago.

People are also better prepared in general, especially for natural disasters. In Bangladesh, for example, we don’t see the huge death tolls from cyclones that we used to see in the 1970s or 1980s.

Some of the issues are the same as in the past for any child caught up in a conflict setting. Children need protection. They need mental health support. They need to get an education. And they want to express themselves. So many of the needs haven’t changed, but we’ve learned a lot on how to address them.

Another interesting change – and we already see it happening – is the new generation of humanitarian workers are largely coming out from humanitarian responses in their own countries.  For example in Ukraine, I have about seven staff from the Middle East who grew up through the Syria conflict and worked on the Syria Response in different countries. I have a few who honed their skills in Ethiopia and others in Yemen. All are now working here in Ukraine, bringing everything that they learned from being part of those response both as staff and sometimes as people themselves deeply impacted by those events.

Workers like myself really believe in the humanitarian principles of independence, impartiality, humanity and neutrality, but our ability to act and deliver in accordance with those principles is challenged these days. The mistake we have collectively made is that we assumed since we have these principles, they will always be here. But I guess we learnt that these, like other rights, need to be continuously fought for to make sure they are not eroded.

One positive change we’d like to see in coming years would be for humanitarian agencies to be empowered to continue to follow the principles that we were founded on – independence, impartiality, neutrality and humanity. Also for states and donors and parties to conflicts to recognise us as independent players so that aid doesn’t become instrumentalized, or is used to further a certain side or a certain cause.

What keeps me motivated? I’ll tell you a story.

When I was working in the camps in northeast Syria, there was a little American boy whose parents had been killed and he was being cared for by a caretaker in the camp.

He eventually ended up with Save the Children in a centre that we were running for unaccompanied children. Our staff were able to use their presence and networks in the camps to find a phone number for his aunt in the US. We independently verified that this boy was indeed related to this family. The family was then supported by the US government who repatriated the boy and brought him to his grandparents in the US.

A few weeks after the boy returned home, the grandfather sent my colleague a video of him dancing in his house. Having seen him in the camp in northeast Syria and then seeing him dancing in his grandparent’s house – it was just amazing. That is what keeps me motivated. Every child’s life we change for the better is my motivation.”

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Sonia Khush is Save the Children’s Country Director for Ukraine, based in Kyiv. She was previously the Syria Response Director, based in various locations in the Middle East from 2015-2022, and prior to that a Senior Director for Humanitarian Response. Deployments included the Ebola Response in Liberia (2014), Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Response (2013), Haiti Earthquake (2010), and Banda Aceh Tsunami (2004), and Palestine (2001-2002). 

Sonia worked on Save the Children’s programmes in Iraq from 2003-2006. This including leading the start-up of our response from Kuwait into southern Iraq, and then initiating programming in Baghdad before returning to the US headquarters. It was a bombing attack at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad in 2003 killing 22 humanitarian aid workers and injuring more than 150 other people that led to the United Nations designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day (WHD). 

Sonia graduated from Tufts University (BA) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MA)

Source: Save The Children

• Four months since the brutal conflict began, extreme hunger is creating additional life-threatening risks for children
• New projections show more people will experience crisis levels of hunger in Sudan than any other time in the past decade.

Khartoum, 15 August – An additional 1.5 million children in Sudan are expected to fall into crisis levels of hunger by September, as violent conflict, displacement and sky-high food prices persist and a likely poor seasonal harvest predicted.

By June, nearly 8 million – or one in every three children – in the country were suffering crisis levels of food shortages, or IPC Phase 3 and above. Between July and September, this figure is expected to rise to 9.5 million, or an extra 17,000 children on average per day.

The number of people facing hunger in Sudan has doubled over the past year, with more than 20.3 million or over 42% of the country’s 46 million people facing crisis levels of food insecurity. This number is the highest number of people going hungry in Sudan since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) started listing hunger data for the country in 2012, and possibly a longer period beforehand.

Regions with the highest levels of active conflict are showing the highest presence of food shortages, with the worst impacted populations in West Darfur (where 62% of the population is highly food insecure), Khartoum and South Kordofan.

Sudan’s planting season, normally starting in May, has been completely upended, with thousands of farmers forced from their land and leaving the ground fallow. The price of sorghum, millet and wheat is also substantially higher than normal.   Sorghum  is the staple food for the majority of poor households in central and eastern Sudan regions, millet is the staple in Darfur, and wheat the staple food for northern states.

Wide looting of markets, shops, banks, homes and public buildings led to an increased shortage of essential supplies, further aggravating the fragile food insecurity and malnutrition.

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

“People are struggling to stay safe and not be killed in the violence, while also struggling to get enough food to eat. In conflict areas, if you go to a market, you risk being robbed, shelled, murdered, or caught in the cross-fire. If you get to that market, the chances are, the shelves are empty.

“It’s impossible to over emphasize the seriousness of the situation in Sudan. This is a desperate, dire crisis for children. We are talking millions of individuals being pushed from their homes, leaving everything behind, eating one measly meal a day. 

“There should be an urgent end to the conflict and the international community should step up for the children of Sudan.”

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 to provide humanitarian relief to people affected by the drought in western Sudan. Since then, we’ve been supporting children and families affected by conflict, displacement, extreme poverty, hunger and a lack of basic services. Many of the children and families we serve are among the most vulnerable and hardest to reach.

NOTES:

• In the latest IPC Acute Food Insecurity Snapshot for Sudan, Over 16.9 million people in Sudan experienced high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) in June 2023. This number is estimated to increase to 20.3 million people between July and September 2023.
• Around 47% – or 23 million – of the population of Sudan are children. The proportion of children in these figures is estimated at 7.9 million (June) and 9.5 million (July – September) respectively.

—ENDS–

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Source: Save The Children

Eight-month old Nadira* is screened for malnutrition in Jawzjan, Afghanistan. Nadira has been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), as drought and poverty take their toll. Photo by Shekiba Mohammadi/Save the Children. More content available here

Content available here

KABUL, 15 August 2023 –More than a third (38.4%) of children surveyed in Afghanistan have been pushed into work to help their families cope with soaring levels of poverty and hunger, two years since the Taliban regained control, Save the Children said[i] .

Children are being forced into dangerous situations to support themselves and their families, with staff from the child rights organisation reporting that one girl was crushed to death by a truck as she was smuggling goods over a border crossing.

Three quarters of children (76.1%) surveyed said they are eating less than they were a year ago as the country’s worst drought in 30 years has caused crops to fail, livestock to die and put food and water further out of reach for children and their families. The drought has impacted 58% of the households interviewed by Save the Children. 

This new initial analysis by Save the Children, based on a survey of households in six provinces, shows the stark needs of people in the country experiencing a deadly mix of poverty, climate change, and hunger. With millions deprived of food aid due to cuts in international funding, this should be a wake-up call to the international community to stop looking away.

Sajida*, 31, and her family in northern Afghanistan have been badly hit by the drought and economic crisis. Sajida wishes she could feed her children potatoes, fruit and meat, but they can only afford rice. Two of her children, 8-month old twins Nahida* and Nadira*, have been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and are receiving treatment at a mobile health clinic run by Save the Children.

Sajida said: “We don’t have water in our village. We go to another village and use donkeys to bring water back here. There are long queues [of people] waiting for water. All the farmers pray for rain, but this year they are hopeless. They think the drought will destroy normal life here.”

She added: “My children come and say to me: “Mum, we don’t want to eat boiled rice. Give us potato fries.” But with teary eyes, I say: “I wish we had potatoes in the kitchen, but the only food I can cook is boiled rice.”

“They are very young, and they don’t know what it means to be poor and to not have money to buy potatoes. I feel bad seeing the condition of my children. I can’t give them a good life, not even a portion of good food.”

Afghanistan is one of the world’s starkest illustrations of the deadly toll the climate crisis is having on families who depend on agriculture in order to survive. The country is now facing its third consecutive year of drought, which is affecting more than half the population.

Levels of hunger are higher in northern Afghanistan, where families rely heavily on farming to survive. Here, the drought has led to severe hunger in one in three households – 34.3% – in Sar-e-Pul province and one in five households – 20.7% – in Jawzjan, home to Sajida and her family. [ii]. For comparison, about 6% of households in Nangarhar and Kabul provinces reported severe hunger respectively.

Hunger not only has a serious impact on children’s physical health but also on mental health, creating anxiety and depression[iii].

Women and girls are at the sharp end, with more than twice as many female-headed households living with severe hunger as male-headed households[iv] and 17% more girls than boys are eating less than they were last year[v].

All this has led to child labour, with more than a third (38.4% ) of children surveyed working to support their family, and 12.5% of households reporting having their children migrating for work, opening up an unprecedented child protection crisis, according to the child rights organisation.

Save the Children does not have comparable data from the same provinces last year. However recent data from the International Labour Organisation found one in 10 children across Afghanistan are engaged in child labour[vi].

Arshad Malik, Country Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan, said: “Two years since the Taliban regained control in Afghanistan, conditions for children and their families are abysmal. What we are seeing is a perfect storm of the climate crisis, poverty and the legacy of conflict inflicting hunger, malnutrition and misery on people who have done nothing to contribute to any of these conditions.

“The fact that children are being pushed into unsafe practices such as labour and migration should send shockwaves around the world. We received a recent report where a small girl was crushed to death while she hid under a moving truck on the Torkham border, as she was forced to smuggle goods across.

“We hope that the international community, which has significantly cut funding to critical food aid across Afghanistan, will rethink this isolationist approach, remember the millions of innocent children whose lives are in jeopardy, and stop punishing them for decisions they have had nothing to do with.”

Save the Children is calling for an urgent injection of humanitarian aid as well as long-term development assistance from the international community for the growing needs of people in Afghanistan. The aid group is also urging donor governments not to freeze or suspend ongoing and existing funding towards humanitarian work in Afghanistan, as this will have a devastating effect on the civilian population, particularly women and girls. Children’s rights, especially girl’s right to education, must be prioritised by all stakeholders.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Save the Children’s initial analysis surveyed 1207 adults and 1205 children in Balkh, Faryab, Jawzjan, Kabul, Nangarhar, and Sar-e-Pul provinces, Afghanistan, between 8 July and 2 August 2023.

Save the Children has worked in Afghanistan since 1976, including during periods of conflict, regime change, and natural disasters. It has programs in nine provinces and works with partners in an additional six provinces.

Since the Taliban regained control in August 2021, Save the Children has been scaling up its response to support the increasing number of children in need in areas that were previously inaccessible. Save the Children delivers health, nutrition, education, child protection, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, and food security and livelihood support. Since September 2021, Save the Children has reached more than 4 million people, including 2.1 million children.

*name has been changed to protect anonymity

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Source: Save The Children

ROME, 9 August 2023 – EU and its member states must take responsibility and prevent migrant deaths at sea by improving search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, Save the Children said after three deadly shipwrecks over the past week.

Giovanna Di Benedetto, Save the Children’s spokesperson in Italy, said it had been a deadly week on the Mediterranean. According to reports, 41 migrants including three children died in a shipwreck last week off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Another two vessels capsized on the weekend in the same area, with the bodies of a woman and toddler recovered by the Italian coastguard. Based on survivors’ first accounts, dozens of people are still missing.

“How many more ‘wakeup calls’ do EU governments need? While thousands of Europeans are enjoying their holidays in the Mediterranean, children are drowning. The EU is ignoring their duty of care for children and families seeking safety in Europe. We fear there will be more bodies before we see meaningful change. This is a tragedy for all Europeans.

“Deaths on the move are not inevitable. One of the reasons for such deaths at Europe’s land and sea border is the EU’s failure to provide safe and legal routes for those seeking safety.

“Save the Children calls on the EU and its member states to take responsibility and prevent migrant deaths at sea by improving search and rescue efforts and ensuring ships in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, whether they are NGOs or merchant vessels, face no obstacles when they rescue people in distress and help them reach safety.”

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.

END

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

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Source: Save The Children

ADDIS ABABA, 9 Aug, 2023 – Save the Children called on Wednesday for access for humanitarian aid to continue in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where a state of emergency has been declared after a renewal in violence.

Save the Children’s Country Director for Ethiopia, Xavier Joubert, said the lives of families and children were being put at risk as the region faced an alarming escalation of conflict about nine months after a truce agreement ended two years of violence.

“The wounds from the recent war remain raw, and yet again, children’s lives hang in the balance. As a humanitarian organization we call upon warring parties to prioritize the safety of civilians and allow humanitarian aid to reach those in need including 580,000 people in the region already displaced by previous conflict. We must shield vulnerable children from violence, displacement, hunger, and abuse and it is imperative that vulnerable families are granted safety and unimpeded access to essential humanitarian aid.”

Save the Children has been operating in Ethiopia for over 60 years. The organisation focuses on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, protection services, education and cash and in-kind distributions. In 2022, Save the Children reached about 7.6 million people including about 5.1 million children through life-saving food, water distribution, and treatment for malnutrition among other services.

ENDS

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Source: Save The Children

With more than 2,000 people feared dead or missing trying to cross the Mediterranean so far in 2023, this year is on track to become the worst in terms of fatalities since 2016. One of the worst Mediterranean Sea disasters in recent history happened on 14 June when a boat carrying an estimated 750 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece. Only 104 survivors were rescued and 82 bodies were recovered, with hundreds more missing and presumed dead.

Alkistis Agrafioti Chatzigianni is a lawyer and advocacy officer of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), a Save the Children and Oxfam partner providing free legal assistance, psychosocial and social support to people seeking refuge in Greece.

Alkistis met with seven boys who survived the tragedy, aged between 15 and 17. All seven boys had been travelling on the boat without parents or close family, and they all came from either Egypt or Syria. This is her account.

“The boys seemed distressed. Some of them didn’t want to talk about what happened that night. They were clearly extremely tired and looking dazed. And how could it be otherwise – they had had an overwhelming experience which I fear will scar their childhood forever.

The boys told me they started that deadly journey either completely alone, or together with teenage friends or cousins. Some of them survived the disaster by hanging onto a piece of wood. They stayed afloat, clutching this piece of wood, for hours in the water.

It was clear from their eyes that the experience had been terrifying and devastating. They were stressed. I had to be so careful with my references and questions, because, of course, I didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.

They told me they were anxious about their future and afraid of what would happen to them. They are worried about what would happen if they were forced to return to their countries. Their greatest wish was to leave Greece immediately and join their family members – parents, brothers, uncles and aunts – in other European states.

They seemed very angry that hundreds of people had been allowed to drown. Some of the boys lost their friends and cousins in the shipwreck. They asked me, how could children and women have been left inside the sinking boat and no one did anything to help them? They were in shock about this reality, at what they felt was a callous disrespect for life.

During our meeting, I felt like I was talking to small superheroes. They were tired, horrified, and severely distressed, but at the same time, they were fighters. They had dreams. They wanted accountability. They seemed stronger than us – people with the privilege to live in safety in Europe. I deeply admire these children.

Some of the children asked me whether the coast guard has assumed responsibility for what had happened. I explained to them that this wasn’t the case but that an investigation into the conditions of the shipwreck and the actions of the coast guard was ongoing. The boys weren’t surprised. They were frustrated and they had such a strong sense of injustice. They currently don’t have faith that there will be a transparent investigation and that the people responsible will be held to account. They already feel that the one month has passed and nothing has happened yet.

I cannot reconcile myself to the thought that hundreds of people are estimated to have died, including hundreds of children, that night. While I was talking to the children, I kept wondering about how these children who survived will continue with their lives after this terrifying experience.

I have been feeling overwhelmed. We cannot stand by as spectators. For their sake, every European citizen should be demanding a transparent and effective investigation into the shipwreck and any responsibility for both the sinking of the ship and rescue delays or relevant omissions, to ensure that perpetrators are held to account. Above all, children fleeing violence, persecution or poverty must be offered safe and legal routes to safety – otherwise we will continue to see more tragedies like this unfold. 

Lastly, it is European Commission’s and states’ minimum responsibility to relocate immediately these children, reunite them with their family members and provide them with a safe and proper environment. All these children should be granted international protection in Europe. It’s the least Europe can do for them.

I said I would share their story, and here it is”

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Source: Save The Children

• Landslides and damaged roads are restricting humanitarian access  
• Water-borne diseases could create a health emergency 
• Deaths illustrate the harsh and hazardous conditions for 1 million Rohingya refugees 

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, 8 August 2023 – A Rohingya child and her mother have died in a mudslide in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh after days of torrential monsoon rains that have affected more than half a million refugee children as well as the host community with two Bangladeshi children also losing their lives.  

The deaths show how life for more than one million Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee camp remains precarious. Living in squalid and overcrowded conditions, they remain almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid to survive. 

Many Rohingya refugees have been displaced by the rainfall because their flimsy shelters were either partially or completely destroyed. The camps have experienced 300 mm of rain – nearly 12 inches – in just one week with hundreds of shelters and other facilities damaged.  

“We can’t live peacefully during the monsoon in our tiny shelters. As soon as the rain comes, our shed becomes dripping wet. At night we have to wake up to keep our stuff dry,” said Rakib*, a 12-year-old Rohingya boy. “My dream is to build a safe home for us one day. Maybe we will have a beautiful life there”.  

Save the Children is concerned that further bad weather could trigger a major humanitarian and health emergency  leading to further deaths, injuries, mass displacement and the potential spread of water-borne diseases.  

Wang Le, Save the Children’s Country Director in Bangladesh, said: 

“At least one Rohingya child and her mother – and two Bangladeshi children – have already died in separate mudslide incidents, which is tragic. It’s a tragic reminder of the incredibly harsh and hazardous conditions that half a million Rohingya refugees have to endure for 6 years now. It is vital that we protect vulnerable communities from the effects of extreme weather, which is getting more frequent and severe due to the climate crisis. 

“Our teams are working tirelessly in the camps and closely monitoring the situation, rushing to repair damaged structures so that we can continue to provide vital services for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. At least 500 of Save the Children’s facilities have been damaged including a dozen of our learning centres and child-friendly spaces. We must get them up and running as soon as possible because these are often the only places Rohingya refugee children can learn and play in a safe and supportive environment.”   

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.

ENDS 

*name changed to protect identity

We have spokespeople available in Cox’s Bazar. For more information or to arrange interview please contact:

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Source: Save The Children

KHARTOUM, 8 August 2023 – Thousands of corpses are reported to be decomposing on the streets of Khartoum, with morgues at breaking point due to power outages and insufficient capacity to store the bodies, putting families and children at increasing risk of diseases, said Save the Children.

The capital of war-torn Sudan has suffered intermittent power and communications blackouts since conflict erupted in April, with battles intensifying on the city streets in recent weeks.

Prolonged power shortages have left the city’s morgues without refrigeration, leaving bodies to decompose in the heat, and causing the risk of major diseases outbreaks in the city. There are also no medical staff left at the morgues, leaving the bodies exposed and untreated, according to the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate, a doctor’s union.

Out of 89 main hospitals in the capital and states, 71 are out of service, with the remainder operating at partial capacity. Some health facilities have been occupied by armed groups, taking life-saving treatment from millions of children and their families, with at least 53 attacks on health care resulting in 11 deaths since April.

A horrifying combination of rising numbers of corpses, severe water shortages, non-functioning hygiene and sanitation services, and lack of water treatment options are also prompting fears of a cholera outbreak in the city. The absence of a functioning public health laboratory , through which a cholera outbreak would normally be reported, makes it difficult to assess the state of the crisis, however Khartoum typically experiences cholera outbreaks during the annual rainy season, which began in June.

Across the country, at least 2,435 children have been killed or injured since the conflict started, with recent clashes in the capital killing and injuring dozens, including children.

On 18 July, a child was killed in shelling, and on 11 July, several homeless children were wounded by stray bullets when clashes took place in a market in the Omdurman are of Khartoum. On 25 and 27 June, two children were killed and another two wounded in artillery shelling across the city, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)

Dr. Bashir Kamal Eldin Hamid, Save the Children’s Health and Nutrition Director, said:

“The healthcare system in Sudan is hanging by a thread. As casualties increase, hospitals are closing, completely emptied of medicines and doctors, and looted of any remaining supplies.

“The inability to give those who have died a dignified burial is yet another element of the suffering of families in Khartoum. We are seeing a health crisis in the making, on top of a crisis of sorrow, fear and pain.

“Where hospitals are still open, they are stretched beyond capacity and nearly non-functional due to staff fatigue and a lack of supplies.”

Save the Children is calling on parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan and find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Every child, no matter where they live, deserves to live a safe, happy and healthy life, free from violence. It is critical for the survival of children and families that we see an end to this fighting. This is only way to protect children from violence and other violations of their rights.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 supporting children and families affected by conflict, displacement, extreme poverty, hunger and a lack of basic services. Many of the children and families we serve are among the most vulnerable and hardest to reach.

Save the Children currently supports nearly over 100 health and nutrition facilities across Sudan, including eight mobile clinics. Since the escalation of the conflict, Save the Children has imported some 37 tons of emergency medical supplies and drugs, and has implemented a large vaccination campaign targeting children to protect them against preventable diseases, such as cholera, polio, and measles.

—ENDS–

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• Katharina Schroeder Katharina.Schroeder@savethechildren.org
• Daphnee Cook, Daphnee.Cook@savethechildren.org;

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Source: Save The Children

ABUJA, 7 August 2023 – A relentless wave of attacks against farmers in Nigeria by armed groups is hindering critical food supplies and threatening to push the country deeper into a devastating hunger crisis this year, Save the Children said.   

Increased attacks against farmers across parts of the country are leading to displacement, market disruptions and loss of livelihoods. Armed groups killed more than 128 farmers and kidnapped 37 others across Nigeria between January and June 2023, according to the Nigerian Security Tracker. In June, 19 farmers were killed by non-state armed groups in Nigeria’s northern Borno State alone. 

As a farmer for 35 years in northeast Nigeria, Bulama is no stranger to insecurity; however, this year has been particularly difficult. Armed men have kidnapped or killed most of the farmers Bulama has worked with.

“On different occasions where we will be in the field farming, armed groups have attacked and kidnapped farmers who are our friends and brothers, requesting ransom – most times it’s an amount no villager can afford,” said Bulama.  

“They have killed and stolen our farm produce, leaving us helpless and with nothing to take home. The hunger and starvation most of us suffer in this community are because insurgents deprive us of accessing the farmlands, and even when we risk our lives in our fields, they steal everything and allow us to starve.” 

Bulama explained that although farming poses a threat to his life, if he stops, his children will die – a harrowing choice that is all too common for farmers in the north.  

In January, the UN estimated that more than 25 million people in Nigeria could face food insecurity this year–a 47% increase from the 17 million people who were already at risk of going hungry–mainly due to the ongoing insecurity, protracted conflicts, and the projected rise in food prices.  

In addition, an estimated two million children under five across the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe are likely to be pushed into acute malnutrition in 2023, with about 700,000 children on the brink of death.  

It is also likely that even more people will be pushed into hunger than earlier predicted due to extreme weather events that are getting more frequent and severe due to the climate crisis.  

Bulama added: “The lack of rain this year has worsened the current hunger crisis my family is facing. All our remaining crops are dried and dead. It has taken us back to starting fresh because most farmers are cutting down their dried crops to plant new ones. We have nothing to eat and nowhere to go. We can go days without eating a meal.”

Nigeria recently declared a state of emergency on food insecurity to help tackle food shortages, stabilise rising prices, and increase protection for farmers facing violence from armed groups. However, without also addressing the climate crisis, farmers like Bulama will still struggle to feed their children when it is safe for them to farm.

Famari Barro, Save the Children’s Country Director for Nigeria, said: 

“These violent attacks against farmers in Nigeria are exacerbating the already dire hunger crisis in the country, especially in the north where millions of children do not know where their next meal will come from. Armed groups committing these ruthless acts are not only disrupting food production but also pushing children to the brink.

“Urgent action must prioritise the needs of children to stop this devastating trend and protect innocent lives. If not, armed groups will continue to carry out brutal attacks, drive food prices, and push more families to starvation.” 

Save the Children has been working in Nigeria since 2001 and has been responding to the humanitarian crisis in the northeast since 2014. Save the Children is providing food, clean water, nutrition and protection services, sexual and reproductive health care, and education to families across Northeast Nigeria. Save the Children is also providing technical support to the government on policy changes and reforms, especially in critical sectors such as health, education, and social protection among others.  

ENDS

Notes to Editor: 

• In June–August 2023, the number of people in CH Phase 3 or above is projected to increase to 25.3 million, representing around 13 percent of the analysed population. GRFC2023-compressed.pdf (fsinplatform.org)  
• According to the Global Food Crisis Report, banditry and kidnapping in the northwestern and northcentral states of Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Benue, Plateau and Niger continued to hinder food production in 2022. Communal attacks and farmer–pastoralist conflict in Plateau and Benue states in 2022, led to population displacement, civilian fatalities, market disruptions and loss of livelihoods. GRFC2023-compressed.pdf (fsinplatform.org) 
• Annual inflation hit a 17-year high in October 2022 at just over 21%, driven by high food prices, increasing fuel and transportation costs, and limited foreign exchange reserves (FEWS NET, November 2022).  
• 25 million Nigerians at high risk of food insecurity in 2023 (unicef.org) 
• Nigeria has one of the world’s highest numbers of children both living in poverty and bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, according to a report by Save the Children last year. 
• In 2022, Nigeria experienced the worst floods to hit the country in a decade, worsening food insecurity in the country: Millions of Nigerians face starvation in the wake of the worst floods in a decade | World News | Sky News  

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We have Save the Children’s Country Director for Nigeria (based in Abuja) and Save the Children’s Deputy Director for Humanitarian Program Operations (based in Borno) available as a spokesperson.

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