An average of five children have been killed or wounded every day for the past 14 years in war-torn Afghanistan, a charity has found.
Data from the UN showed at least 26,025 children were killed or maimed from 2005 to 2019, said Save the Children.
The charity has urged donor nations to protect the future of Afghan children ahead of a key meeting in Geneva.
Violence has been rising in Afghanistan amid stalled peace talks and U.S. troop withdrawals.
Afghanistan is among the 11 most dangerous nations in the world for children, according to Save the Children.
In 2019 it accounted for the greatest number of killing and maiming violations of all the global conflicts covered in the charity’s report, released on Friday, with 874 Afghan children killed and 2,275 maimed.
More than two-thirds of those killed and maimed last year were boys, it said, “as a result of ground engagements between pro- and anti-government forces or of improvised explosive devices in both suicide and non-suicide attacks”.
The report found that schools have routinely been attacked in the ongoing conflict that pits the Afghan government, supported by U.S. troops, against the Taliban and other insurgents.
Save the Children said that between 2017 and 2019 there were more than 300 attacks on schools.
“Imagine living with the constant fear that today might be the day that your child is killed in a suicide attack or an airstrike. This is the grim reality for tens of thousands of Afghan parents whose children have been killed or injured,” said Chris Nyamandi, Save the Children’s country director in Afghanistan, in a statement.
