Latest news with #EdouardBeigbeder
Herald Malaysia
03-07-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
UNICEF: Conflicts leave millions of children displaced or killed
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has issued a warning that conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa are causing a child to flee their home every five seconds, with a child killed or injured every 15 minutes. Jul 03, 2025 Palestinian children stand amid the rubble of a house in central Gaza (AFP or licensors) By Grace LathropAs of 2025, an estimated 45 million children are in need of humanitarian assistance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a 41% increase just in the past five years. UNICEF has sought to help children and families in the MENA region for the past 70 years, yet it warns that operations are now at risk due to severe funding shortages. Statistics of the crisis The MENA region is currently experiencing multiple different conflicts, including the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Syrian civil war, and the war in Yemen. One in two children living in the region are located in countries affected by these conflicts, totaling nearly 100 million children at risk of violence. Since 2023, over 12 million children have been displaced, forcing them to leave their homes. More than 40,000 have been injured or have experienced permanent mutilation and 20,000 have been killed. A call to action Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for MENA, explained that 'a child's life is turned upside down every five seconds due to conflicts in the region.' He stressed that 'ending hostilities for the sake of children is not optional—it's an urgent necessity, a moral obligation, and the only path for a better future.' UNICEF is urging all parties involved in regional conflicts to end hostilities and respect the international and humanitarian human rights laws, so that the suffering of children can come to an end. They also ask for neighboring states with influence over conflicts to promote the power of peace and the protection of children. UNICEF is asking for donors to continue or increase their support for the sake of the vulnerable children in the Middle East and North Africa, and asks for new donors to protect at-risk young populations in the area. Funding and humanitarian needs The UN children's agency reports that it is unable to perform its usual operations in the MENA region due to severe funding shortages. It said Syria saw a 78% funding gap, and Palestine has a 68% gap in its 2025 funding appeals. UNICEF's programs are under severe pressure, as they are projected to continue to see a 20-25% funding decrease by 2026. Around 370 million dollars towards humanitarian support is at risk of being lost with recent cuts. These cuts are a severe threat to its programs, which provides important resources to children and families in need. Treatment for severe malnutrition, access to safer water and vaccinations against deadly diseases are just a few prime examples.--Vatican News
Zawya
02-07-2025
- Health
- Zawya
Children's lives ‘turned upside down' by wars across Middle East, North Africa, warns the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Alarmingly, 110 million children in the region live in countries affected by war, with homes, schools and health facilities damaged or destroyed in fighting. 'A child's life is being turned upside down the equivalent of every five seconds due to the conflicts in the region,' said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, on Tuesday. UNICEF estimates indicate that 45 million children across the region will require humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 41 per cent increase since 2020. Funding shortfalls However, funding gaps are affecting vital programmes across the region. For instance, as of May, Syria faced a 78 per cent funding gap and the State of Palestine a 68 per cent gap for their 2025 appeals. UNICEF's regional programmes are also under increasing financial strain. The outlook for 2026 also remains bleak, UNICEF said, noting that its funding for Middle East and North Africa is projected to decline by 20 to 25 per cent, potentially resulting in shortfalls of up to $370 million. Conflicts must stop This would jeopardize lifesaving programmes across the region, including treatment for severe malnutrition, safe water production in conflict zones and vaccinations against deadly diseases. 'As the plight of children in the region worsens, the resources to respond are becoming sparser,' said Mr. Beigbeder. 'Conflicts must stop. International advocacy to resolve these crises must intensify. And support for vulnerable children must increase, not decline.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.
Zawya
01-07-2025
- Health
- Zawya
Every five seconds, a child is displaced, injured, or killed in the Middle East and North Africa's conflicts
At least 12.2 million children have reportedly been killed, maimed or displaced in conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in less than 2 years, the equivalent of one child displaced every five seconds, and one child killed or maimed every fifteen minutes. Reports indicate over 12 million children have been displaced, more than 40,000 maimed, and almost 20,000 killed. 'A child's life is being turned upside down the equivalent of every five seconds due to the conflicts in the region,' said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder. 'Already, half of the region's 220 million children live in conflict-affected countries. We cannot allow this number to rise. Ending hostilities – for the sake of children – is not optional; it is an urgent necessity, a moral obligation, and it is the only path to a better future.' Today, nearly 110 million children in MENA live in countries affected by conflict. Violence continues to disrupt nearly every aspect of their lives. Homes, schools, and health facilities are being destroyed. Children are regularly exposed to life-threatening situations, extreme distress, and displacement, stripped of safety and often left with psychological scars that can last a lifetime. In 2025, UNICEF estimates that 45 million children across the region will require humanitarian assistance due to continued life-threatening risks and vulnerabilities, up from 32 million in 2020 - a 41 per cent increase in just five years. Meanwhile, UNICEF is experiencing major funding shortfalls across its operations in the MENA region. For instance, as of May, Syria faces a 78 per cent funding gap, the State of Palestine a 68 per cent gap for their 2025 appeals, and our regional programmes are under increasing financial strain. Looking ahead, the outlook remains bleak. By 2026*, UNICEF's funding in MENA is projected to decline by 20 to 25 per cent, potentially resulting in a loss of up to US$370 million – jeopardizing life-saving programmes across the region, including treatment for severe malnutrition, safe water production in conflict zones, and vaccinations against deadly diseases. 'As the plight of children in the region worsens, the resources to respond are becoming sparser,' said Beigbeder. 'Conflicts must stop. International advocacy to resolve these crises must intensify. And support for vulnerable children must increase, not decline.' UNICEF urges all parties to conflict in the region to end hostilities and uphold international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law. Member States with influence over parties to conflict must use their leverage to advocate for peace and the protection of children and the essential infrastructure they rely on for survival. UNICEF also urges donors to maintain or increase their support for children and calls on new donors to stand with the region's most vulnerable children. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UNICEF, Middle East and North Africa.
The National
30-06-2025
- The National
Children must not remain casualties of war
The most blameless and innocent victims of any war are almost certainly always children. While witnessing death and devastation of war at any age is likely to take its toll, the effect on young people, by all indicators, is especially harrowing. In an annual UN report released earlier this month, 41,370 grave violations against children were documented and verified by the UN last year – a 25 per cent increase since 2023. While in much of the world where peace reigns, schools are now either out or about to close for the summer, there are hundreds of thousands of children in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and millions collectively in conflict zones around the world, who are excluded from the privilege of even going a day without the terror of violence, hearing the sounds of explosions and encountering bloodshed. Summer holidays then are a far cry for these children, whose regular developmental milestones have been cut and swapped with desperation, tragedy and chronic hunger. 'Unimaginable horrors' is the phrase Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, used in May to describe the situation where more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Given the human cost of war and the resultant extensive suffering that children are left to deal with for the rest of their lives, the notion that modern warfare is targeted or surgical is utterly misleading, as has been evident in several parts of the world. Air strikes and attacks on aid distribution need to stop. Killings need to stop. Children need to be able to live a normal life An unfortunate truth is also that prolonged conflict often brings about a fatigue and desensitisation to such bleak realities to the wider world. But such images must not be allowed to lose their power to compel international stakeholders, including world leaders, to push for a ceasefire and long-term peace, implying then also a better future for children deprived of normality. Already the stunted progress in the five areas of child-related UN Sustainable Development Goals – namely, survive and thrive, learning, protection, and poverty – should be a wake-up call for how adults all over the world are failing children caught in conflict zones, losing their homes and all too frequently their limbs, parents, and their right to normal growing-up years. The other grave crime is the recruitment of children in armed conflict. To prevent this heinous offshoot of war, child protection units must be strengthened so that their remit to protect innocent children from being exploited and given arms can be more effective. To this end, the UN does have an action plan, which includes implementing national campaigns and getting access to military camps and bases to ensure no children are in the ranks. Each day of continued war, with efforts to secure ceasefires being stalled or scuttled, is another strike in the tally of a collective moral failure to protect children from an increased risk of falling into a cycle of aggression and or extremism. The plain fact that bears repeating, after too many months of 'unimaginable horrors', is that the air strikes and attacks on aid distribution need to stop. Killings need to stop. Children need to be able to live a normal life, not being casualties of war. Leaders everywhere must realise this and keep working towards diplomatic solutions to end all conflicts. As Mr Beigbeder said of this unconscionable reality that has continued for far too long: 'How many more dead girls and boys will it take?'
Morocco World
04-06-2025
- Health
- Morocco World
UNICEF: 50,000 Children Killed or Injured in Gaza
Rabat_ As the world marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, few places reflect the meaning of this day with more devastating clarity than the Gaza Strip, where Israel's ongoing genocide has turned Palestinian childhood into a global site of horror, grief, and impunity. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement issued a statement on the occasion, urging immediate and decisive global action to stop the genocide in Gaza. The Palestinian-led movement called for 'targeted lawful diplomatic, sports and other sanctions on Israel' to halt the mass killing of civilians, especially children. It also reiterated the demand for a comprehensive military and energy embargo on Israel, insisting that those responsible for the massacres in Palestine be prosecuted through international legal mechanisms. The world must not only 'stand in mourning, but in urgent demand for justice,' the statement stressed. 'Nowhere is this day more tragically embodied than against Palestinian children in Gaza, where Israel's ongoing and livestreamed genocide has resulted in the mass killing of Palestinian children,' the BDS movement declared. It recalled that UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in November 2023 that Gaza was 'becoming a graveyard for children.' Nearly 20 months into Israel's genocidal assault, the phrase is no longer metaphorical. Even the graveyards themselves have been bombed. The scale of violence unleashed on Gaza's children defies moral comprehension and numerical abstraction. Israel's unimaginable violence in Gaza In a statement on May 27, UNICEF revealed that over 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel began its assault in October 2023. The UN agency has described this grim figure as 'unimaginable.' Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, condemned the violence as part of a pattern of systemic, targeted harm. His statement marked the last weekend of May as another chapter of carnage: On May 24, an Israeli airstrike obliterated the al-Najjar family home in Khan Younis, killing nearly all ten siblings under the age of 12. Only one child survived, critically injured. On May 27, a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced families was attacked, reportedly killing at least 31 people, including 18 children. 'These children — lives that should never be reduced to numbers — are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors,' Beigbeder said. 'Grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, starvation, forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure — in essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip.' Long before the genocide in Gaza escalated, Palestinian children held a haunting place in Arab consciousness. And now more than ever, they stand as symbols of resilience, born into brutal military occupation, exile, siege, and ethnic cleansing. Israel has robbed generations of Palestinians of the sweet oblivion of childhood. Today, the image of a Palestinian child is one of unimaginable grief: thousand-yard stares, lone survivors sitting beside the corpses of their families, tiny hands carrying bloodied remains and amputated limbs. These children identify their mothers only by strands of hair, die with a fist of rice clutched in their hands, or lie weightless under the rubble of their homes, their souls hovering silently above.
