UNICEF announced that ten million children in the Sahel region (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) are in dire need of humanitarian assistance due to the escalation of conflicts, twice as many as in 2020, in addition to four million children at risk in neighboring areas as the fighting spreads across borders. Attacks between armed groups and national security forces have spread to Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said children caught in armed conflicts are on the rise as hostilities escalate, and 2022 has been a particularly brutal year for children in the Central African Sahel, calling on all parties to the conflict to urgently stop attacks on children, their homes, schools and health centers.
Three times as many children were killed in Burkina Faso in the first nine months of 2022 as compared to the same period in 2021, according to the UN. They were killed by gunshots and explosive devices during attacks on villages or explosive remnants of war.
