The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed fears over the impact of escalating violence on children in Somalia.
The UN agency said in a news release received here on Friday that just last week seven children died in battles between anti-government forces and Ethiopian troops based in the capital of Mogadishu.
"The current environment of conflict, displacement and insecurity in southern and central Somalia has a seriously negative impact on children's and young people's long-term psychosocial welfare and healthy development," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, UNICEF's representative in the Horn of African nation, which has not had a functioning government since 1991.
According to humanitarian organizations working in the Horn of Africa nation, at least 20 aid workers have been killed and 13 others abducted since the start of 2008.
In June, four were killed and seven others abducted, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Somalia).
UNICEF called on all parties to respect international humanitarian law, protect the rights of children and find ways to increase aid access.
The agency recently announced it was scaling up its nutrition program in the country after a survey found there had been an 11 per cent increase in malnutrition in the last six months.
UNICEF said it has received reports of over 150 children killed or injured through indiscriminate shelling, bombings and crossfire during the past one year alone.
Another concern is the recruitment of children and their participation in the conflict, which Balslev-Olesen said, has led to children becoming suspects and targets in the conflict.
Along with its partners, the agency is carrying out an advocacy campaign against child recruitment and is working with communities through child protection networks throughout southern and central Somalia to monitor and report on violations against children.
"However, the functioning of these networks is being seriously hampered by the deteriorating security situation in the region and the targeting of aid workers which are hindering the urgently needed humanitarian access," Balslev-Olesen noted.
Last week, UN agencies said a combination of factors, including drought, conflict, the weak Somali shilling and a succession of poor harvests, had increased the number of people needing food and other assistance to 2.6 million, an increase of 40 percent from January.
UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden said the situation in Somalia was "fluid", warning that the country is months away from a major crisis.
The situation was likely to deteriorate further, potentially affecting 3.5 million people, or half the total population, he added.
The critical food and livelihood crisis, combined with price hikes, very poor rains in the southern and central parts of the country, violence and limited or no access to the affected populations, had further exacerbated the situation and severely restricted the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver assistance.
Nearly 180,000 children in Somalia are acutely malnourished, with 25,000 severely malnourished, according to UNICEF, which added that the areas where internally displaced persons (IDPs) have taken refuge after fleeing the violence in Mogadishu are among the most at risk of malnutrition.
Source:Xinhua
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