Sudan is most dangerous place for children
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says 1.8 million children have been affected by a three-year conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, where they risk being recruited as fighters and are especially vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.
"It is a traumatized population and you can see it in the children's faces," said Hollywood actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow, who last month visited camps for some of the 2.5 million displaced by Darfur's war.
Reuters AlertNet, a humanitarian news Web site run by Reuters Foundation, asked more than 110 aid experts and journalists to highlight the most dangerous places for children.
After Sudan, they chose northern Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, India, the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Myanmar.
UNICEF says more than 2 million children worldwide have died as a direct result of armed conflict in the past decade, and about 20 million have been forced to flee their homes. More than a million have been orphaned or separated from their families.
"The most dangerous places are those conflict zones where children are actively recruited into the fighting forces, and the current worst offender ... is Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army," said Gareth Evans, head of the International Crisis Group think tank. "Its recruiting, indoctrination and battle tactics have left countless children either dead, or dreadfully physically or mentally scarred."
During its brutal, two-decade insurgency, the cult-like rebel group has kidnapped up to 25,000 children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves. Each evening, about the same number of child "night commuters" trudge into towns to avoid abduction.
"What makes it even more dangerous is that no one is hearing about it ... The long-standing and invisible nature of the situation has led to an entire generation of children growing up in camps," said Krista Threefoot of Catholic Relief Services.