Grave violations of children’s rights are taking place every day in Somalia as fighting continues in a conflict the world has largely forgotten.

Reports by WHO of a 46 per cent increase in weapon-related injuries to children under age 5 in Mogadishu in May 2011, underscore the vulnerability of Somali children in this ongoing conflict.

Children in central south Somalia face never-ending suffering in what is arguably one of the most extreme, indiscriminate and complex conflicts in today’s world.

Somali children are the most affected by the unrelenting violence in which they risk being killed, maimed or injured when caught in crossfire or as a result of being unlawfully recruited and used on the front lines by all parties to the conflict.

Every aspect of the conflict has a detrimental and disproportionate impact on children in central south Somalia. It affects their physical and mental well-being, exposes them to displacement and food insecurity and leaves them without health care, education and protection from abuse.

75 per cent of acutely malnourished children (at least 180,000) are in Somalia’s southern regions, only 30 per cent of the population has access to safe water and school enrolment is amongst the lowest in the world at only 22 per cent in the Central South

Not only is this a tragic humanitarian disaster in the present, it also represents a critical challenge to peace and stability in Somalia in the future.

A call by children in Somalia for education, good governance and less violence has gone mostly unheard. However, the world cannot continue to ignore the children’s crisis in Somalia.

Without a population of literate individuals who understand the concept of human rights, peace and democracy, the building blocks for future stability in Somalia are absent.

UNICEF is the sole or largest provider of supplies and technical expertise for water, education, health and nutrition services in Somalia and continues to advocate and support interventions to protect Somali children against exploitation and abuse.

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