ISLAMABAD: As Unicef estimates reveal that a record 43.3 million children lived in forced displacement by the end of 2022, many of them for their entire childhood, its top official on Wednesday sought greater political will to address the ‘drivers of displacement’.

Of the 43.3 million children who were forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, almost 60pc (25.8 million) were internally displaced by conflict and violence. The number of refugee and asylum-seeking children also hit a new record of 17.5m, a number that does not even include those newly displaced in 2023, including by the conflict in Sudan.

Unicef estimates over 940,000 children have been displaced due to the conflict to date. In addition, extreme weather events, such as the Pakistan floods and the Horn of Africa drought, led to another 12m displacements of children in 2022.

The number of children forcibly displaced from their homes doubled in the last decade, outpacing efforts to include and protect refugee and internally displaced children. The war in Ukraine has forced more than 2 million Ukrainian children to flee the country and displaced more than 1 million children inside Ukraine.

“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,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

“By working together, we can keep them safe, healthy, learning and protected,” she added.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2023