[JURIST] The UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) [official website] warned [press release] on Thursday that the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has caused the number of malnourished children in the nation to dramatically increase. While South Sudan’s population suffered [UN News report] malnutrition prior to the conflict’s inception in 2013, UNICEF stated that seven of South Sudan’s ten states have now passed the malnutrition emergency threshold, meaning that at least 15 per cent of the population is malnourished. With more than one third of the population suffering food shortages, approximately 120,000 children have been treated for malnutrition since January, and UNICEF expects to support 250,000 malnourished children this year. The ongoing conflict, however, has hindered the agency’s efforts and forced food supplies to be distributed via air transport. UNICEF is trying to raise $154.5 million to help provide the population with healthcare, education and basic necessities, but the agency has only raised about $52 million thus far.

Children have been at-risk groups in various conflicts worldwide. In June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced [JURIST report] the increasing number of children recruited and killed in armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and South Sudan. In March, the Myanmar government released [JURIST report] 46 underage and child recruits from the military as part of a UN joint action plan made in 2012. In February, the UN’s Leila Zerrougui reported [JURIST report] that children worldwide continued to face human rights violations in 2015, particularly in Middle Eastern and African countries. Also in February, Human Rights Watch declared [JURIST report] that hostiles in eastern Ukraine had damaged or destroyed hundreds of schools, many of which were being used for military purposes. Furthermore, UN human rights experts in Nigeria urged [JURIST report] the government to guarantee the safety of areas liberated from Boko Haram. Also earlier that month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, expressed [JURIST report] “utmost alarm” at the worsening situation in Syria and said that parties were “constantly sinking to new depths” attacking women, children, the sick and the elderly.