Number of displaced children at 43.3 million worldwide: UNICEF

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported Wednesday that the number of displaced children worldwide hit 43.3 million at the end of last year.

“For more than a decade, the number of children forced to flee their homes has risen at an alarming rate, and our global capacity to respond remains under serious strain. The increase is in step with the consistent onslaught of conflict, crises and climate disasters around the world,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The report which is published annually, pointed out that most displaced children spent their entire childhood in that way, and "the number of children forcibly displaced from their homes doubled in the last decade."

The war in Ukraine forcibly displaced 2 million children, and 1 million were internally displaced.

Of the 43.3 million children who were forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, almost 60% (25.8 million) were internally displaced by conflict and violence, said the report.

The number of refugee and asylum-seeking children hit a new record of 17.5 million -- a number that does not include newly displaced in 2023, including by the conflict in Sudan.

The report said 940,000 children have already been displaced due to the conflict in Sudan, and noted extreme weather events also displaced millions of children.