A UNICEF report revealed on Friday that children living in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger urgently need humanitarian aid at twice the rate in 2020.
This alarming figure means that nearly 4 million children living in these countries are at risk, due to the armed conflicts affecting these countries.
UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Marie-Pierre Poirier said in a statement that these children are sometimes targeted by armed groups or victims of military clashes.
The senior official called on parties to the conflict to stop attacks on children, schools, health centers, and homes in the central Sahel.
Data collected by the UN showed that the number of children killed in the first nine months of 2022 had tripled compared to the same period in 2021. As a result, more than 8,300 schools in the three countries mentioned above were closed due to these attacks.