SRSG/CAAC Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict [to 5 December 2015]
https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/virtual-library/press-release-archive/
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02 Dec 2015
Iraq: Report Describes Conflict with Dramatic Consequences for Children
New York – Iraq has been engulfed in a wave of violence with dramatic consequences for children, states the second report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Iraq, covering the period from 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2015.
Killing and maiming, acts of extreme violence, the abduction of close to 1,400 boys and girls, recurrent attacks on schools and hospitals, the recruitment and use of children and sexual violence used as a tactic of war by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are a few examples of the grim reality faced by the children of Iraq.
“The lives of boys and girls have been deeply affected by the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. The Government of Iraq faces tremendous challenges to protect the country’s children, who urgently need to be shielded from this brutal conflict,” said Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
High number of child casualties
Despite limited access for monitoring and reporting due to the volatile security situation, the United Nations documented more than 3,000 child casualties, making killing and maiming the violation that affected children the most.
Attacks using tactics of extreme violence, allegedly perpetrated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Islamic State in Iraq, ISIL, account for more than half of all documented child casualties. From 2011 to 2013, most child casualties were the result of improvised explosive devices…