Nigeria is among the top 10 worst conflict-affected countries to be a child and it is currently ranked behind Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, Chad, Niger and Central African Republic in cutting under-5 child deaths, a new report by Save the Children has shown.



Save the Children in the report released on Tuesday titled 2019 Global Childhood Report evaluated 176 countries on children’s access to health care, education, nutrition and protection from harmful practices like child labor and child marriage.

The report said Nigeria is ranked in the bottom 10 of the index rankings.

“The country is ranked 170 out of 176 doing slightly better than countries like Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, Chad, Niger and Central African Republic in number 176.”

Other worst conflict-affected countries to be a child are Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

“Large numbers of children in these countries are living close to high-intensity conflicts marked by grave violations of children’s rights (killing and maiming, recruitment, sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals and denial of humanitarian access).”

However, the report showed that West and Central Africa have cut under-5 child deaths by nearly half in a generation.

While noting that the world has made remarkable progress in protecting childhoods, it attributed the feat to strong political leadership, social investments, and the success of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In the year 2000, it said an estimated 970 million children were robbed of their childhoods due to ‘childhood enders’ – life-changing events like child marriage, early pregnancy, exclusion from education, sickness, malnutrition and violent deaths.

“That number today has been reduced to 690 million – meaning that at least 280 million children are better off today than they would have been two decades ago,” the report indicated.

Launched ahead of International Children’s Day on June 1st, Save the Children’s Global Childhood Report includes the annual End of Childhood Index, which finds that circumstances for children in the majority of countries across West and Central Africa have improved since 2000.


Source: https://listwand.com/nigeria-ranked-among-top-10-worst-conflict-affected-countries-to-be-a-child-report/