(UCAN): As Pope Francis urges the world to pray for the child victims of war, hundreds of thousands of children in Myanmar have been affected by ongoing conflicts exacerbated by last year’s military coup [Sunday Examiner, 7 February 2021].
The number of children forced to flee their homes to escape violence in the country has surpassed half a million with a rapid escalation in displacements this year, according to Save the Children.
In a report released on November 1, the charity said more than 1.4 million people have been displaced by conflict in Myanmar with 1.1 million forced to flee since the escalation of violence in February 2021. Of the total, 407,000 children have been displaced since then, about 63 per cent, or 257,000, have been displaced in the past nine months.
“Many displaced families in Myanmar are living in makeshift shelters in the jungle and are vulnerable to hunger, illness and face risks to their safety like trafficking and exploitation,” the report said.
It added that children’s lives remain under threat on a daily basis nearly two years after the military ousted the elected civilian government.
There are still millions of boys and girls who suffer and live in conditions very similar to slavery, these children are not numbers but human beings with names and an identity that God has given them
Pope Francis
In September, 11 children were reportedly killed and another 17 injured in an air strike on a school in Let Yet Kone village, Sagaing region. Last month, two children were killed and one was severely injured in an explosion on the way home from school in Chin state.
“A year after this political crisis and escalation in violence started, 150,000 children were displaced. Not even a year after that, this number is half a million. These figures serve as a warning to the world: while there are many crises the world is grappling with, the children of Myanmar must not be forgotten,” said Olivier Franchi, Save the Children’s Asia programme director.
In a video message released on October 31, Pope Francis called on Catholics to pray for children who are suffering due to rejection, indigence, poverty and conflict around the world.
“There are still millions of boys and girls who suffer and live in conditions very similar to slavery,” the pope said, stressing that “these children are not numbers but human beings with names and an identity that God has given them.”
A year after this political crisis and escalation in violence started, 150,000 children were displaced. Not even a year after that, this number is half a million. These figures serve as a warning to the world: while there are many crises the world is grappling with, the children of Myanmar must not be forgotten
Olivier Franchi, Save the Children’s Asia programme director
He said every marginalised child living without schooling, without a family, without healthcare, is “a cry, a cry that rises up to God and shames the system that we adults have built.”
Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, recently appealed to global organisations to take swift and decisive action, especially to protect the lives and rights of children.
The country’s bishops have repeatedly called for the junta to respect human life and the sanctity of places of worship, hospitals and schools.
The military regime has brutally attacked and killed scores of children caught in the crossfire of conflict as well as being targeted for violence, according to a UN rights report released in June.
More than 2,400 people, including scores of children, have been killed and over 16,000 people have been detained by the junta since the military coup in February last year, rights groups say.
