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A malnourished infant, eastern DR Congo.
The toll on children
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UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies Martin Bell reports on children caught in conflict
As so often happens in conflicts, the casualties in DRC are disproportionately high among the young. Each year, more children under five die in DRC than in China (a country with 23 times the population) or in all the countries of Latin America combined. But children bear the brunt of conflict, disease and death not only as victims; they are also witnesses to – and sometimes forced participants in – atrocities and egregious crimes that can inflict lifelong physical and psychological harm. For many growing up in DRC, particularly in the east, their childhoods have been, and are still being, stolen.