The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday painted a bleak picture of the situation of children in Iraq, where an estimated 2 million boys and girls continue suffer from poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education.
Thousands of families have been obliged to leave their homes because of violence or threats, and hundreds of children have lost their lives in the violence, UNICEF said in a press release.
Conditions continue to deteriorate, with many mothers preventing their children from attending school for fear they would be attacked.
"Iraqi children are paying far too high a price," said Roger Wright, UNICEF's special representative for Iraq.
In 2007 UNICEF invested over 40 million U.S. dollars to deliver critical health care, safe water and sanitation, education and other essential services to millions of children and their families.
Wright stressed that sufficient funding will be crucial to meeting the needs of Iraq's children in 2008, adding that children should be the priority for international investment in Iraq.
"Iraqi children are the foundation for their country's recovery," he said. "Where children's lives are protected and revived, community recovery will swiftly follow. We continue to owe them our very best in 2008 and beyond."
Source:Xinhua
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