2014 was a terrible year for children. Reuters.

Kurdish refugees from Kobani, Syria. Reuters. 

UNICEF declared that 2014 was a terrible year for children with up to 230 million children living in countries effected by war. Reuters. The immense number of crises this year lead to some being ignored. Specifically, Afghanistan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, were overshadowed by the conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Libya. The director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake, said that children have been subjected to torture, kidnapping, slavery, rape and conscription, adding that "Never in recent memory have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable cruelty". War isn't the only threat to children. Ebola has left thousands orphaned or killed while 5 million have been kept out of school. 

My Comment:

What a depressing story. It is true that many times in war, the little ones tend to be victims. The world is on fire right now, with so many different wars going on at once. Of course many people die accidentally in war, and children are no exception. That is nothing new, but the brutality seems to have increased. More and more it seems like children are being deliberately targeted. That is a special kind of evil. Many of the radical Islamic groups, like ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda see nothing wrong with killing, enslaving or conscripting children. And those are just the groups that get headlines... 

There doesn't seem to be all that much anyone one person can do to stop the killing, other then trying to win or end the wars as soon as possible. America seems to have little interest in winning in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and seems much more interested in just stalling the enemy. And nobody is doing anything to stop the wars in Africa. There is nothing to do except document and bear witness unfortunately.