Agenzia Fides

Mogadishu (Agenzia Fides) - The lives of Somali children are increasingly at risk due to the ongoing conflict. In the course of the fighting taking place throughout South and Central Somalia, attacks and assaults on children continue. In the past weeks the killings and serious injuries have increased. According to UN sources that monitor violations of children's rights, in the month of October 24 children and young people were killed, almost twice the average number of the other months of the year. In the same month there were 58 serious injuries carried out on children, more than in any other month this year. To date, it is certain that in 2011 about 300 children have been seriously injured and 100 killed, but it is likely that the real number is even greater if we consider the unreported or unconfirmed cases. Another warning is given by the recruitment and use of minors in the fighting, and sexual abuse of girls and women. In 2011, UN sources say that in Somalia over 600 enlistment of minors and more than 200 cases of rape, mostly to the detriment of girls were recorded. The escalation of violence also jeopardizes humanitarian assistance to those who need it. In fact many of the hundreds of thousands of children who already risk their lives because of hunger or disease, now run the risk of being deprived of even minimal assistance on which their lives depend. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 17/11/2011)